Revieics — Bernard's Madreporarian Corals. 467 



" A ' specific name,' by long usage and almost universal agreement, 

 implies a true genetic group, and my experience has been that no 

 explanation as to the meaning assigned to the use of the name can 

 change this. When we are not dealing with species, but with 

 forms, from the ultimate grouping of which species may perhaps be 

 discovered, the work is confusing if the method of designation for 

 the forms is that used for species. Some special method is needed 

 for this preliminary analytical stage of work. Only when the 

 natural groups have been discovered should names be used. 



" The use of some special symbol for this preliminary study 

 becomes obvious if we picture to ourselves what must happen as soon 

 as true genetic groups or species can be compounded from series of 

 known forms. One of the names will be retained as the name 

 of the species, others as the names of varieties, while the rest will 

 have to be discarded as mere synonyms. Working symbols have 

 this advantage over ordinary specific names, that they can be 

 legitimately discarded if we so desire. But it seems to me that, 

 while we would certainly desire to discard a wearisome and 

 perfectly unintelligible list of synonymous names, there would be 

 no desire to discard synonymies composed of geographical symbols, 

 for they would give at a glance the geographical distributions of 

 the species and of its several varieties. 



" The attempt here made to record forms is being made in other 

 groups besides corals, but so far only in such groups as have already 

 been divided into species. The process involves the addition to 

 the accepted specific name of one or more qualifying names, one 

 of which invariably indicates the locality. In this way the old 

 binominal designation of Linnaeus is forming the basis for a multi- 

 nominal system of recording the various forms which we now find 

 embraced by the species. This system cannot be adopted in the 

 corals, for the simple reasons that only a very small proportion 

 of the corals have yet received any names at all, and only a few 

 of those which have been named can now be identified. The 

 process is, therefore, not one of designating the forms which make 

 up established species, but of recording forms which may some day 

 be grouped into species. We who are working with corals, then, 

 are in a position favourable to the adoption of a new and more 

 straightforward method of dealing with the species problem. In 

 reality we are still in the throes of sorting out genera, and all the 

 most solid work of the past is chiefly valuable in this respect. 

 Even this stage is far from complete. The task, therefore, is 

 complicated, and the new method should be technically simple, 

 practical, and efficient. 



"The question thus arises, whether names or symbols best fulfil 

 these conditions. Names, when there are only a few of them, may 

 be easier to remember, but long lists are a dead weight upon the 

 work. While there may ultimately prove to be but few groups or 

 species requiring names, the number of forms to be designated is 

 bound to be very large. For example, the analytical tables which 

 now give at a glance the geographical distribution of the different 



