68 Prcderic E. Clements 



gard the Latin of Linne as the model. In Greek, a large num- 

 ber of incorrect spellings have arisen from the careless practice 

 of droj^ping one or more letters at the end of a word, or from 

 the arbitrary change of the termination. The names of The- 

 ophrastus and Dioscorides, especially, have suffered mutilation, 

 and should be restored to the original form, while the correction 

 of later misspellings should be made upon the basis of the classi- 

 cal form of the terms of the compound. In the rare cases in 

 v/hich the spelling of a Greek word has been changed in Latin, 

 the Greek form should prevail. 



VI 



Terms are invalid If they exceed six syllables in length; retroactively, the 

 correction of sesquipedalian words must never take place by concraction or 

 mutilation. 



"Nomina Generica Sesquipedalia, enunciatu difficilia, vel naus- 

 eosa, fugienda sunt." Critica Botanica 133. 



The practice of biologists with respect to the formation of ex- 

 tremely long terms has been so exemplary that the present rule 

 scarcely requires postulation. Its justification may be found in 

 the fact that inconveniently long words, more or less frequent a 

 century ago, still appear occasionally, and that such words, if 

 there were no definite sentiment or legislation against them, 

 might again become frequent as the suppl}- of primitives and 

 short compounds becomes exhausted. It is more or less unsatis- 

 factory to limit the length of a word by the number of syllables, 

 since these vary greatly in length in dififerent stems, but this is 

 undoubtedly better than limitation by the number of letters. It 

 is a question whether nomenclature would not gain more than it 

 would lose, if the maximum length of words were placed at five 

 syllables, though the number of changes necessitated would prob- 

 ably render such a rule inacceptable. Naturally, the present rule 

 should not be made operative in the case of names of groups 

 above the genus. 



68 



