62 NATURAL HISTORY. 



pointed out, there existed no clear and definite system 

 of zoological nomenclature. No one except a work- 

 ing naturalist can form any conception of the amount 

 of confusion arising from the want of a precise nomen- 

 clature. Even with the limited number of specific 

 forms of animals which were known to naturalists 

 in the time of Ray, this confusion was almost intoler- 

 ably great. At the present day, and in the present 

 state of our knowledge, the study of natural history 

 would be an absolutely hopeless matter, if nomenclature 

 had remained in the condition in which it was at the 

 time of Ray and Willughby. Linnaeus, however, has 

 the transcendent merit of having conceived and intro- 

 duced the so-called ' binomial' system of nomenclature, 

 now in universal use among naturalists. On this system 

 each 'genus,' or group of related 'species,' of animals 

 receives a special Latin name the 'generic name' which 

 is used for every species belonging to the group. Each 

 'species' of the genus is distinguished by a second 

 subordinate title the ' specific name ' which is placed 

 immediately after the generic name. Consequently, 

 every species of animals is designated by two names, 

 one indicative of the genus to which it belongs, while 

 the other is its own proper appellation. Thus, to give 

 a single example, the dog and the wolf are two 'species' 

 of the ' genus ' Canis, and they are therefore distinguished 

 from each other as the Canis familiaris and the Cam's 

 lupus respectively. The cat and the tiger, again, are 

 two species of the genus Felts ^ and they therefore stand 

 as the Fdis catus and the Felts tigris. 



At the present day, and in certain departments of 



