10 Coleopterological Notices, III. 



equitable and reasonably liberal point of view they should be placed 

 in our keeping, for the descriptions to which they answer are in 

 general quite insufficient, and are often worse than useless from 

 inaccuracy of statement. 



After this short and I trust pardonable digression, it only remains 

 to be said, that the present opportunity has been taken to publish 

 the descriptions of some other more or less interesting species, 

 mainly in the Longicornia and Heteromera. 



New York, August 18, 1891. 



Note. 



In a report of the proceedings of the Second Ornithological Congress (Nature, 

 No. 1129, p. 153), it is stated that among other resolutions favorably passed 

 upon was the "adoption of names, even faulty in construction or misspelt, 

 with all the consequences." The phrase "with all the consequences' 1 '' affords a 

 convenient pretext for the farther discussion of certain matters concerning 

 nomenclature, which I have previously touched upon to some extent. 



The designation of every species consists of two distinct parts : the generic 

 symbol and the specific name. The former need not necessarily have any 

 meaning whatever, the latter always must have a meaning ; we should there- 

 fore apply to these two parts rules which are somewhat different. 



I apply the word " symbol" to the generic designation, because the latter is 

 not a word in the ordinary sense of being a combination of letters possessing 

 linguistic meaning, but is simply a coordination of letters, the sole conditions 

 of which are that of being readily pronounceable, or consisting of consonants 

 and vowels harmoniously arranged, and of having a Latin termination, in order 

 to determine generic endings in the specific name. Even this last condition 

 has not been strictly complied with, as a great many generic symbols have 

 Greek or barbarian terminations, often necessitating the arbitrary determina- 

 tion of gender; nevertheless, words with endings which are neither Latin nor 

 Greek, such as Marail Less, and Lemming Cuv., should not be admitted. The 

 earliest printed symbol satisfying these conditions should be the one adopted. 

 The specific designation is, however, a word taken from the Latin, or from 

 any other language through the Latin by universal agreement, in order to 

 avoid the undue favoring of any of the languages at present in use, and the 

 inevitable discordances of opinion which would result therefrom. As one of 

 the prime conditions of the specific name is that it shall have a meaning, and 

 must therefore be linguistic in form and origin, there can be no objection to 

 the alteration of the printed word to suit the proper rules of orthography or 

 gender, when the intentions of the imposer of the name are evident. There 

 are, in fact, on the ground of uniformity and simplicity, many reasons why 

 this should be done, and why rules should be laid down and followed for 

 writing specific names derived from various sources. 



