48 REVIEWS. 



claim to the specific name : e. g. Cyprinus Gobio, C Leucis- 

 cus, C Barbus, L. We go further, and maintain that the 

 proper specific names are, ccetertbus paribus, always to be pre- 

 ferred for genera in these cases, not only because that they 

 are already familiar, but because they are most frequently 

 old generic names which may claim under the law of priority. 

 For example, Lonicera Diet-villa, l^. — Diervilla, Tourn. ; L. 

 ^'nnphoricarpos, L. = Symphoricarpos, Dill.; Rhamnus JPa- 

 liurus, L,= Paliurus, Dod. ; R. Zizyphus, L. = Zizyphus, 

 Dod. ; Rubus Dalibarda, L. = Dalibarda, L. ; and so of hun- 

 dreds of proper specific names which have rightly resumed 

 their generic rank. 



The next proposition of the British Committee, namely, that 

 specific names, even when substantive or borrowed from per- 

 sons or places, should uniformly be written with a small (in- 

 stead of capital) initial, is so contrary to long usage and 

 offensive to good taste, that we are surprised that it should 

 anywhere find favor. Mr. Agassiz pointedly condemns it. 

 The only reason assigned for the change is, that some people 

 might not be able to distinguish the specific from the generic 

 name without the aid of typography. But, as Dr. Gould has 

 already remarked in this Journal, such persons would be 

 misled by almost anything ; and the propounders of the rule 

 should follow it consistently by writing their own cognomen 

 with a small initial letter. We do not wonder that the Com- 

 mittee of the American Association refused to reaffirm this 

 rule, as applied to proper names from persons ; and we are 

 quite sure that naturalists generally will not hesitate wholly 

 to reject it; surely the committee would not approve the prac- 

 tice of a late botanical author of this country, who reduced 

 the proper scientific names of Linnaeus into adjective con- 

 formity, by writing " Ranunculus jlammulus" instead of R. 

 Flammula, "Thymus serpyllus" in the place of Thymus 

 Serpyllum, and so on. 



Professor Agassiz severely condemns the proposition to re- 

 strict the names of families to a uniform termination in idee, 

 and their subdivisions to ince, without considering whether the 

 words in question will receive that particular suffix kindly. 



