IREDALE : 1I0LLU£CAN NOMEN^CLATUEAL PROBLEMS. II. 201 



by C. S. Eafinesque, or under his direction ... To such a plate shall 

 be annexed a full account of the specie or species, therein figured, 

 contained in two, three, or more pages 8vo of letter press. . . This 

 undertaking will begin in 1818 . . . when begun, from twenty to fifty 

 plates, etc., will be issued monthly. . . The price to subscribers for 

 the whole work, or any set or sets, of 100 numbers and upwards, 

 will only be 5 cents for each number, containing one plate and 

 several pages of description and elucidation. Should any sub- 

 scriber want his plates neatly coloured, he must then pay double price 

 or 10 cents for every number. . . Every 100 numbers will form a 

 Centuria or Volume. . . Notwithstanding the magnitude of the 

 undertaking, it is hoped it will be found an easy task : to complete 

 the whole work about 5,000 numbers and 8 or 10 years are 

 required. . ." Then a detailed synopsis of the work appears ; 

 " I. General Sets. 1. General Flora, or Botany of North America : 

 about 4,000 species and -3,000 numbers. 2. General Fauna, or 

 Zoology of Norbh America : about 4,000 species and 2,000 numbers. 

 II. Classical Sets." 26 of these are recited. No. 14 being " Apalogy 

 of the United States, or Natural History of the Mollusks (including 

 shells) ; over one hundred and fifty species." " III. Sets of Orders," 

 six of these including " 31. Real Natural Orders of Animals : 

 sixty-four numbers. N.B. Some peculiar sets may be asked, 

 of any striking Orders of Animals, such as . . . Spironotia the Spiral 

 Shells, Bivalvia the Bivalve Shells, etc." "IV. Sets of Families. 

 V. Sets of Genera. VI. Sets of Practical Floras and Faunas. 

 VII. Sets of the State Floras and Faunas. VIII. Sets of Tract 

 Floras and Faunas. IX. Sets of the Local Floras and Faunas," 

 and "X. Sets of Adjacent Floras and Faunas." One hundred and 

 fifteen variations of the above are cited, with a proviso that any 

 other combination that suggests itself to the subscriber will be 

 s applied. 



From the plate in the Analyse, which gives his birth date as 

 1783, Rafinesque was only 33 when he projected this wonderful 

 work, and as his Analyse was published previously, his genius is 

 unmistakable. As I pointed out at the time of my previous paper, 

 Rafinesque's names are troublesome in many ways, and I here call 

 attention to a couple of instances. Thus, recently Dall recorded the 

 .fact that the genus name Mitra dated back to Martyn, where it had 

 been validly introduced in connexion with a species quite unlike 

 the typical species associated with the genus name by Lamarck. 

 He therefore proposed Papalaria for the Lamarckian Mitra. In the 

 " Analyse de la Nature ", p. 145, 1815, Rafinesque had proposed 

 " Mitraria, R. for Mitra, Lam.", so that Rafinesque's name would 

 become usable in preference to Ball's novel proposal. In the 

 Bulletin, U.S. National Museum, 112, 1921, Dall has published his 

 long- waited for " Summary of the Marine Shell-bearing Mollusks of 

 the North- West Coast of America ", and all concholosists must 



