June 21, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



611 



number is continually increasing — to adopt 

 rules as uniform as that affecting capitaliza- 

 tion ; that is to say, generic words having a 

 given form of ending should demand a gender 

 ending in the specific word conforming to the 

 general Latin nile, ignoring the accidental ex- 

 ceptions of language. So generic words end- 

 ing, for instance, in us, os, ax, etc., require in 

 every case the masculine form of the specific 

 name, those ending in a, is, e, etc., the feminine 

 and those ending in w or n the neuter. Per- 

 sonally, I should even be in favor of writing 

 Venus mercenarius, instead of Venus merce- 

 nana, first of all to agree with the uniformity 

 rule mentioned, but also, in this special case, 

 because the goddess of love can not be a clam, 

 and the word Venus in Venus mercenarius 

 can not therefore stand for the goddess of 

 love, but is merely a word resembling her 

 designation, though masculine for nomencla- 

 torial purposes. 



Furthermore, in alluding to Greek genders 

 it should be remembered that when a word 

 derived from the Greek, Arabic or Hottentot, 

 or arbitrarily composed of a pronounceable 

 series of letters, becomes the name of a genus 

 modified by an adjectival Latin specific name, 

 the genus word can no longer be Greek, Arabic 

 or Hottentot, but automatically becomes Latin 

 and should demand gender endings in the spe- 

 cific word in accordance with the most general 

 Latin rules alone. It is only by adopting rules 

 rigidly fixed such as this that nomenclature 

 can be rendered practically stable, and this is 

 an end that all zoologists would rather see 

 than strictly philologic purity, which, con- 

 forming to all sorts of linguistic vagaries, 

 would give to it a piebald character certainly 

 very undesirable and inconsistent with uni- 

 formity, which is the most essential requisite 

 of any nomenclatorial code. 



Finally, it might be added, biology has noth- 

 ing closely in common with philology. We 

 simply have to use words of some kind to 

 express ideas and name the different forms 

 of animal life, but this language should be 

 invented by biologists for their own ends and 

 not made to conform to the pitiful mixture of 

 contradictions and exceptions constituting 



.actual human language, either ancient or 

 modern. Thos. L. Casey 



W.\SHINQT0N, D. C, 

 May 11, 1918 



OUR NATIONAL FLOWER 



To THE Editor of Scienxe: In confirmation 

 of the admirable plea for the columbine by 

 Albert A. Hansen (Science, April 12, 1918) 

 may I call attention to a few additional facts 

 regarding its unique fitness to be our national 

 emblem, and the support it has already re- 

 ceived? A history of earlier efforts in The 

 National Flower Movement is given by the 

 present writer in the Transactions of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Part I., 

 1898; where will also be found a full discussion 

 of the merits of various candidates. 



The idea of having our native columbine 

 for national flower occurred independently to 

 several jjersons during the time of preparation 

 for the Columbian Exposition at Chicago ; and 

 in 1895 there was organized the Columbine 

 Association whose object is, by spreading in- 

 formation of its fitness, " to bring about the 

 official adoption of the columbine as the na- 

 tional fiower of the United States." The fol- 

 lowing year a National Flower Convention 

 composed of delegates from the various states 

 of the Union, chosen by their respective gov- 

 ernors at the request of Governor Elias Carr 

 of North Carolina, met from the twenty-first 

 to the twenty-third of October at Asheville to 

 decide upon the most suitable flower for our 

 national emblem. With a view to helping 

 future decision it was unanimously 



Sesolved, That a plant to serve properly the pur- 

 poses of a national flower should meet the following 

 conditions: 



1. It should be a native of the United States, and 

 should grow wild over the greater part of its area. 



2. It should bloom on one or more of our national 

 holidays. 



3. It should be capable of easy cultivation in 

 any garden. 



4. It should not be a weed, or in any way offen- 

 sive, or harmful to health. 



5. It should bear what in the popular sense is 

 called a flower, and should not be merely a foliage 

 plant or one chiefly valued for its fruit. 



