90 NOMENCLATURE. 



valleys from the lakes without regard to the direction of the valleys, they can not be 

 accounted for as glacial phenomena, for they are wholly inconsistent with it. The 

 glacial epoch is a theoretical blunder, not supported by scientific facts or intelligent 

 reasoning, and contrary to all geographical, geological, and pal aeon tological information. 

 There is no such geological period, and no gap into which it can possibly be injected. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



NOMENCLATURE. 



The rules of nomenclature are, with few exceptions, firmly established. They 

 have resulted from years of experience and reflection, and tend to secure fixity and 

 convenience in the designation of animals and plants. *Each animal and each 

 ^-—4 plant has a name consisting of two words — the first generic, and the second specific. 

 This is called the binomial system, or Linnsean method of nomenclature. The genera 

 are arranged in families, the families in orders, the orders in classes, and the classes 

 in subkingdoms. These divisions are sometimes further separated into sections or 

 intermediate groups, often distinguished by the prefixes sub and super. 



Linnaeus first consistently applied the binomial system of nomenclature to all 

 classes of organisms in 1758, in the 10th edition of Systema Natunv; but he 

 applied it to botany in Species Plantarum, published in 1753. It had been used 

 interraittingly by earlier authors. Naturalists have generally adopted 1753 as the 

 starting-point for the binomial system in botany, and 1758 for zoology, or, without 

 reason, the 12th edition of Systema Naturce, published in 1766. It can make no 

 difference in palaeontology which is regarded as the starting-point, for the last 

 precedes the science. The names in the binomial system assume the Latin form by 

 taking a Latin termination. 



DENOMINATION OF HIGHER GROUPS THAN GENERA. 



The names of groups higher than genera are usually taken from some of the 

 principal characters. They are expressed by single words of Greek or Latin origin, 

 in which a certain harmony of form and termination is preserved for groups of 

 similar nature ; as, Phanerogamae, Cryptogamae ; Cephalopoda, Gasteropoda. 



Compounds of Greek and Latin words are not allowable. In cryptogamic botany, 

 ancient names of families, such as Musci and Filices, have been employed as names 

 of classes or sub-classes. Botanical cohorts or sub-cohorts are designated by the 

 name of one of their principal families, with the termination ales. 

 ^^. ^* The families in botany are designated by the name of one of their principal 



genera, with the termination acece, as Rosa, Rosacea ; Ranunculas, Ranunculacew. To 

 which there are the following exceptions: 1. When the genus from which the 



*Note. — See Report of the 12th Meeting of the British Association for the advance- 

 ment of Science, held at Manchester in June, 1842, Reprinted Cin. Quar. Jour. Sci.,Vol. I, 

 p. 351 ; Report of the British Association at Birmingham, in 1865, and Report of the 

 Committee (W. H. Dall) on Zoological Nomenclature, to section B. of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Nashville Meeting in 1877. The 

 authorities are quite fully cited in the latter report. 



