ON THE NAMES OF AMERICAN FUSULINAS^ 



GEORGE H. GIRTY 

 U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. 



Though material both good and abundant is not lacking, our 

 American Fusulinas have never been carefully studied by any 

 American investigator and it has remained for an alien to give us a 

 comprehensive treatment of them. This is done in Schellwien's 

 monograph of the Fusulinidae which since his untimely death has 

 been carried on by other hands, the North American portion by 

 Hans von Staffs having recently been published. Of the scientific 

 part of this paper it will sufhce to say that it appears to represent 

 much research, yet one cannot but fear that the lack of judgment 

 shown in the proceedings of nomenclature has extended to the 

 scientific portion also.^ It is to certain points of nomenclature 

 that attention is here directed. 



In order not to shock the sensitive reader too violently I will 

 begin with a minor point. Our common Pennsylvanian species of 

 Fusulina was described by Say as Miliolites secalicus, the generic 

 reference being later changed to Fusulina. In the monograph by 

 von Staff this is arbitrarily shortened to Fusulina secalis. Say's 

 word secalicus was clearly derived from the Latin "secale, is" a 

 kind of grain, and while a more appropriate termination might 

 have been chosen in forming the adjective from the noun, secalicus 

 is a gem of pure latinity compared with many words in the shady 

 lexicon of paleontology. Von Staff's term secalis can be nothing 



' Published by permission of the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey. 



^ Paleoiitographica, Band 59, 4te Lieferung, 1912, pp. 157 ff. 



3 One rarely meets nowadays with a work whose presentation is as poor as this. 

 The text is without plate references and the plates without page references. The 

 distribution of the species is given only incidentally, and apparently is not given com- 

 pletely or in detail. The magnification of the figures is not stated either on the plates 

 themselves or on the plate descriptions. I think it is given somewhere in the text but 

 on my last reference to the work, I did not have time to read it through completely, 

 and so am unable to say definitely that the fact is or is not stated. 



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