i1 



ON THE GENESIS OF THE DESIGNATION OF "TYPES" AMONG 

 MALACOLOGICAL WRITERS. 



By A. S. Kennard, F.G.S., and B. B. Woodward, F.L.S. 



Read IS'li Januanj, 19S2. 



The International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature are rightly 

 very insistent on the proper designation of types (Art. 30), especially 

 in those " Cases in which the generic type is accepted not solely upon 

 basis of the original publication (Art. 30, II g) that if an author, in 

 publishing a genus with more than one valid species, fails to designate 

 or to indicate its type, any subsequent author may select the type, 

 aiad such designation is not subject to change. The meaning of the 

 expression ' select the type ' is to be rigidly construed. Mention of 

 a species as an illustration or example of a genus does not constitute 

 a selection of a type." 



Under these conditions and in view of the confusion that appears 

 to exist in regard to the matter, it becomes interestmg and important 

 to ascertain, as far as possible, which of the older writers on con- 

 ch ology conformed in any of their works to these requirements. 



Lamarck, certainly, did no more than cite examples, indeed, he 

 says in his " Systeme des Animaux sans Vertebres ", 1801, p. viii, 

 " Pour faire connoitre d'une maniere certaine les genres dont je 

 donne ici les characteres, j'ai cite sous chacque d'eux une espece 

 connae, ou tres-rarement pleusieurs, et j 'y ai joint quelques synonymes 

 que je puis certifier." Consequently he changes his examples. Thus 

 in his earlier "Prodrome d'une nouvelle Classification des Coquilles", 

 1799, we find for Cyclostoma, Turbo scarlaris, Lin., and for Helix, 

 H. nemoralis, Lin., whilst in the " Systeme " he gives as examples 

 of these two genera, Cyclostoma delpJiinus, n., and Helix pomatia, 

 Lin., respectively. 



The first writer who may be said to have indicated " types " in 

 the modern sense was D. de Montfort in his " Conchyliologie 

 systematique ", 1808-10, where to each genus, whether his own or 

 adopted from a previous author, there is given " Espece servant de 

 type au genre". 



To Montfort there succeeded the Eev. J. Fleming. In his article 

 on " Conchology " in the " Supplement to the fourth, fifth, and 

 sixth editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica ", vol. iii, which, 

 though bearing date 182i was really issued in February, 1818 

 {vide advertisement at the end of vol. vi), and again in the article 

 " Mollusca " in vol. v of the same work, 1822, Fleming under each 

 genus definitely states that such or such species " is the type of the 

 genus ", or " is regarded as the type of the genus ". His designations 

 can consequently be accepted. 



Next in order comes J. G. Children's practically forgotten work on 

 " Lamarck's Genera of Shells ", published as a whole under his name 

 in 1823, but originally printed without his name in the successive 



