2 Frederic E. Clements 



analogy is always busy throughout the life of a language, and, 

 also, in the fact that the lexicon must take account of all usage, 

 with the result that the cruder derivatives of formative and de- 

 cadent periods of the language are found alongside of the purer, 

 or at least more refined forms of the classical period. 



While Kuntze's important contributions and the Rochester Code 

 have been notable ^achievements on the way toward nomen- 

 clatural reform, it has been evident from the first that botanists 

 had merely reached a temporary resting place, from which they 

 must sooner or later go forward to the ultimate goal a uniform 

 and stable nomenclature and terminology of international recog- 

 nition. The failure to deal with the matter of generic types and 

 word-formation, both only less important than the cardinal prin- 

 ciple of priority, made a reopening of the question inevitable, 

 an event which is rapidly being brought about by the increasing 

 frequency of papers upon nomenclature. The zoologists, while 

 they have not gone so far in certain lines as the botanists, have 

 greatly anticipated them by their action at the Zoological Con- 

 gress of 1901, when they agreed to place zoological nomen- 

 clature upon a classical basis. Sooner or later, botanists must 

 take the same action. When this time comes, biological nomen- 

 clature will be in a fair way to become a symmetrical, stable 

 structure, based upon the two cardinal principles, priority and 

 classicity. There can be little difference of opinion in regard 

 to the repeated statement that nomenclature is merely an in- 

 strument in the hands of the biologist, and there should be just 

 as little question that the instrument should be a worthy and 

 ready one. 



I. 



Classical Greek and Latin are the basis of scientific nomenclature. 



"Idiotae imposuere nomina absurda." Linnaeus Philosophia 

 Botanica 158 1751. 



There has never been any serious question concerning the 

 necessity of a universal language for the natural sciences. The 

 ancient and medieval development of biology, carried on first 



322 



