3()0 NOMENCLATURE. .. 238. 



bear the names ; but because the first are Pyrites, the 

 second Ores. Many minerals indeed contain the said me- 

 tals, and yet are not joined to these species within the 

 same orders. Thus the above mentioned names not only 

 become innocuous, but they are even useful, in as much as 

 they convey the idea, though not a natural-historical one, of 

 the quality of the contents to which these bodies owe their 

 application in the arts. Yet they would not have been 

 employed, but for the above mentioned rule in the construc- 

 tion of a new nomenclature, not to introduce too many 

 new words. 



In the names of two of the orders, Gem and Metal, 

 an exception seems to have been made from the general 

 process of applying compound names to the genera, which 

 at the same time should express the orders. The name of 

 the order is, however, only suppressed in these, because 

 to a certain extent it is understood from itself. Every 

 body knows Gold, Silver, Bismuth, Tellurium, &c. to be 

 metals, and the names Gold-metal, Silver-metal, &c. would 

 certainly not meet with general approbation. It is the 

 same with Diamond, Topaz, JZircon, &c. Nobody would 

 approve of the names Diamond-gem, Topaz-gem, Zircon- 

 gem, &c. The name of a metal, and the name of a gem, 

 therefore, signify by themselves the order to which the 

 one and the other belongs. The only genus of the order 

 Sulphur has as yet no generic name. 



. 238. DENOMINATION OF THE SPECIES. 



The nearer restriction of the generic name to 

 the species is effected by an adjective. Thus the 

 Denomination of the Species is produced. 



The adjective, with which the species is designated with- 

 in its genus, must be taken from its natural-historical pro- 

 perties, and if possible so selected, that it refers to one 

 of those properties of the species which are most useful in 

 distinguishing it from other species of the same genus. To 



