, 233. NOMENCLATURE. 351 



. 33. OBJECT OF THE NAMES. 



The ideas expressed by the names are the higher 

 unities of classification, immediately preceding that 

 of the species. 



In order to enable us to add the proper restrictions in 

 the denomination of the species, we must apply the name 

 to the genus, or to the order, in general to one of the high- 

 er unities of classification. The name, therefore, is not 

 fixed upon a single natural production, or upon an indivi- 

 dual, not even upon a single species ; but it is applied to 

 an assemblage of a greater extent, and is allowed to be 

 transferred upon the species or upon the individual, only 

 in so far as the one and the other of these belong to the 

 above-mentioned more extensive assemblage, in virtue of 

 their natural-historical properties. This is a peculiar pro- 

 perty of every systematic nomenclature, and it is a charac- 

 ter by which in particular it differs from the trivial nomen- 

 clature. In the latter, the species, or in general the low- 

 est systematic idea bears the name, without any regard 

 to the genus, or to the order in which it is contained. 

 The trivial nomenclature therefore bestows its names upon 

 the objects themselves, without indicating the connexion 

 Avhich exists between them and other bodies, in one and 

 the same system. This definition of the trivial nomencla- 

 ture explains its farther arrangement, as shewn in .241. 



The trivial nomenclature allows of an unlimited arbi- 

 trariness in providing the species with names ; which is 

 limited in a systematic nomenclature. This alone would 

 suffice to shew the usefulness of its general reception, even 

 though it were not recommendable on account of its other 

 qualities. A newly discovered mineral which does not be- 

 long to any known species, may perhaps belong to a known 

 genus, and assume its name ; or it may belong at least to 

 a known order, and as such receive the name of that or- 

 der. And even if neither of these be the case, the syste- 



