the language of the Latins; not in its purest form, or 

 the classic elegance of ancient Rome, (for that were 

 some relief,) but a mere scholastic display of barbarous 

 Latinity, something like the prescriptions of the phy- 

 sician, containing a series of mystic and free-masonry 

 signs to the initiated apothecary; and, in consulting 

 them, we shall but too readily perceive that it indeed 

 falls to the lot of few to write with the classic diction 

 of a Gregory. In saying thus much, we would not 

 be understood to declaim against system or nomen- 

 clature, as we are decided advocates for both ; indeed, 

 it is not easy to perceive how science could make 

 any progress without them : but the language of 

 nomenclature should be wisely fixed, and, when once 

 universally admitted, should be suffered to remain 

 undisturbed ; science is now likely to suffer wrong, 

 from an extraordinary propensity in this direction : 

 an arbitrary change of terms is now the unhappy 

 temper of the fashion of the day, restless for some- 

 thing new, even in the sound of a novel name : 



" A rose 

 By any other name would smell as sweet ; " 



yet we have no right to dethrone that name, conse- 

 crated by the rights of antiquity, and acknowledged by 

 the modern science of a world. 



The authority of Linnaeus and his terms is disputed 

 even by those who subscribe themselves his disciples, 

 and call themselves by his name. This conduct is very 

 ungrateful, or, to say the least of it, inconsistent. In 

 some parts of the Systema Naturce of that extra- 

 ordinary man, recent discovery found something want- 

 ing, and in others imperfection : but these, surely, 

 are not valid reasons to doom the whole fabric to 

 destruction. Now, the various sections of natural 

 history have each their peculiar banners, inscribed, 



