



l*j NOMENCLATURE 



tier intelligible to all other students of Natural 

 History. 



Linnaeus devised such a system, and to him 

 we owe a most simple and comprehensive scien- 

 tific mode of designating animals and plants. 

 It may at first seem no advantage to give up the 

 common names of the vernacular and adopt the 

 unfamiliar ones, but a word of explanation will 

 make the object clear. Perceiving, for instance, 

 the close relations between certain members of 

 the larger groups, Linnaeus gave to them names 

 that should be common to all, and which are 

 called generic names, — as we speak of Ducks, 

 when we would designate in one word the Mal- 

 lard, the Widgeon, the Canvas-Back, etc. ; but to 

 these generic names he added qualifying epithets, 

 called specific names, to indicate the different 

 kinds in each group. For example, the Lion, 

 the Tiger, the Panther, the Domestic Cat consti- 

 tute such a natural group, which Linnaeus called 

 Felis, Cat, indicating the whole genus ; but the 

 species he designates as Felis catus. the Domestic 

 Cat, — Felis leo, the Lion, — Felis tigris, the 

 Tiger. — Felis panther a, the Panther. So he 

 called all the Dogs Canis ; but for the different 

 kinds we have Canis familiaris, the Domestic 

 Dog, — Canis lupus, the Wolf, — Canis vulpes, 

 the Fox, etc. 



In some families of the vegetable kingdom we 



