1§ 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 53. 



of such systems as we have. This, if 

 found to be the fact, will be very far from 

 yielding the least support to the people 

 who just now, under the name of conserva- 

 tism, are making the plea of convenience, 

 as against us who would insist upon the 

 exercise of the principle of priority ; for 

 they are only pleading as against present 

 changes, that is, against a present and tran- 

 sitory inconvenience, as affecting only the 

 present generation of biologists ; whereas, 

 the only convenience which reasonable prin- 

 ciples can very seriously regard and try to 

 provide for must be the general conven- 

 ience of all, that of the future as well as of 

 the present ; nay, more than of the present; 

 because it would be absurd to question that 

 the future generations of those who will have 

 to do with the names — scientific names — 

 of plants and animals, are prospectively a 

 thousand fold more numerous and impor- 

 tant a body than the whole little handful of 

 to-day, how large a handful we to ourselves 

 may seem. 



Of convenience, one of the very prime 

 conditions, as far as relates to nomencla- 

 ture, is brevity. Such of the Linnsean 

 names of plants and animals as are binary 

 have, by universal consent, been allowed to 

 supersede those older names which were of 

 from three to a dozen words' length ; thus 

 has more brevity abundantly proved itself 

 a principle far more truly fundamental than 

 priority. 



Again, what is perhaps still more thor- 

 oughly an underlying principle of botanico- 

 zoological nomenclature is that it be given 

 in the terms of, and according to the rules 

 of, an universal language. It were most easy 

 to demonstrate that neither the binary 

 quality of a name, nor a right of priority, nor 

 both these qualities combined, ever gives a 

 plant name the right to recognition, unless it 

 have the quality of Latinity, unless it be 

 given in the Latin language, at least as to 

 its form. And this, too, is only a matter of 



general utility; convenience is looked to, 

 not indeed of the English, or of the Ger- 

 mans, or of the Russians, or of the Japa- 

 nese; for the botanists of each and all 

 these nations, separately considered, would 

 be better accommodated, the English by 

 the adoption of English instead of Latin, 

 the Germans by the adoption of German, 

 as the language of scientific nomenclature, 

 and so on through the whole list of modern 

 tongues. 



Under a rational treatment of the whole 

 subject it can hardly fail to appear that, as 

 making for the convenience of the whole 

 botanical world, in time present and to 

 come, the first fundamental principle is that 

 of an Universal Language of Nomenclature; 

 the second, that of Brevity in Names; the 

 third — and this subservient to both the 

 aforenamed, and secondarj' to them — the 

 principal of Priority of Publication. 



Edw. L. Greene. 



Catholic University, 



Washington, D. C. 



IMPRESSIONS OF THE NAPLES ZOOLOGICAL 

 STATION. 



The Stazione Zoologica of Naples is so 

 well known that it is quite unnecessary to 

 say anything at present about the history 

 of this famous establishment. The editor 

 of Science has asked me, however, to write 

 an account of the work of the station as 

 seen from within during my visit of ten 

 months to Naples. During that time it was 

 my good fortune to occupy the table of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and I take this op- 

 portunity to express to the Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian and to the Associated Board 

 of Directors of the Naples Table my in- 

 debtedness for the appointment. 



Prof. Dohrn has recently given in Nature 

 an account of the history of the Naples 

 station and of the work that has been ac- 

 complished. Prof. Dohrn 's life and inter- 

 ests have been so intimately connected with 



