68 CODE OF NOMENCLATURE. 



Remarks. — The pre-Linnaean or early historical references are thus 

 separated from the nomenclatural or synonymatic, on which, however, the lat- 

 ter often depend, and are therefore historically important. All bibliographi- 

 cal references are in a measure historical, but a distinction has been made 

 between such as are strictly historical and those mainly biological. While 

 it may be impracticable to separate them into distinct series, it will greatly 

 facilitate the labor of later students of the group if authors will indicate the 

 character of the knowledge conveyed in the work cited by a brief parentheti- 

 cal statement following the citation, as biographical, descriptive, embryo- 

 logical, monographic, geographical distribution, etc., as the case may be, — 

 a practice already adopted by some writers. The extent to which biblio- 

 graphical references may be profitably cited will vary with the nature of the 

 work in hand, but in works of a monographic character, they should include 

 all essential works, whether relating to the status of names, or to the 

 development, relationship, habits, or distribution of the organism under 

 consideration. 



Since pre-Linnaean authors are necessarily subject to citation, although 

 their names of groups are untenable (unless later adopted by binomial writ- 

 ers), the relation of their work to the science becomes duly recognized, and 

 they acquire such credit as the character of their work may entitle them to 

 receive. Much has been said on the score of justice in relation to the early 

 authors; and it has been claimed that to ignore their names of groups in our 

 nomenclature is to do them great injustice. Your Committee, however, begs 

 leave to submit, as already stated under Canon XIV., that the matter of jus- 

 tice or injustice in relation to authors is not to be considered in matters of 

 nomenclature, which should be based exclusively on certain general prin- 

 ciples of utility, convenience, and practicability. In every historical resumi 

 of our knowledge of particular groups or species, every author who has con- 

 tributed to our knowledge, whether pre-Linnncan or modern, polynomial or 

 binomial, receives his due modicum of recognition, meted in proportion to 

 the merit of his endeavors. So that he is not only recognized in biblio- 

 graphical citation, but in every sketch of the progress of our knowledge of 

 the organisms about which he may have written. 



Recommendation IX. "^^hen the diagnostic characters or 

 the limits of a group havf ii changed, such change should be 

 shown by an abridged indication of the character of the change, 

 as ' mut. char.,' * pro parte,' to follow the citation. 



§ 1 6. Of the Selection of Vernactilar Names. 



Recommendation X. Vernacular names, though having no 

 standing in scientific nomenclature, and being not strictly sub- 



