130 BRITISH BEES. 



nseus truly says^ "Nomina si nescis, perit et cognitio 

 rerum." 



By a law tacitly admitted, but universally recognized, 

 for the sake of securing to a name its intangibility, 

 no two genera in the same kingdom of nature may be 

 named alike. There is, therefore, if this rule be ob- 

 served, no fear of similar names coming into collision in 

 the same province, and thus producing confusion. A 

 ready means to prevent the possibility of such mischance 

 is the admirable work which has been published by 

 Agassiz, with the assistance of very able coadjutors, in 

 the ' Nomenclator Zoologicus,' which is a list of all the 

 generic names extant in zoology, exhibiting what names, 

 are already in use either appropriately or synonymously 

 in this great branch of the natural world, and if this 

 work receive periodically its necessary supplements and 

 additions, no excuse will remain for the repetition of a 

 name already applied. The most defective character in 

 this laborious work, is the frequent incorrectness of its 

 etymology of the names of genera. It would be, perhaps, 

 without such aid, too great a labour to require of the 

 describing naturalist, or it might not be otherwise even 

 practicable for him, to ascertain whether the generic 

 name he purposes to impose be, or not, anticipated. 

 The penalty of its being superseded is understood to 

 attach to the imposition of such a name, for the altera- 

 tion may be made with impunity, and thereby it becomes 

 degraded to the rank of a mere synonym. 



Nomenclature has thus, by the happy invention of 

 Linnaeus, been made a matter of the greatest simplicity, 

 conciseness, and lucidity, and to him, therefore, our 

 gratitude is due. 



An indispensable branch of nomenclature is Synonymy, 



