10 LAWS OF NOMENCLATUEE. 



liar to me, that I have been able to take a very direct course. 

 Without imitating or copying any author, I began by laying 

 down the laws and customs, such as they are followed, or 

 ought, according to me, to be followed in botany, distri- 

 buting my matter into chapters and sections^ so as to put the 

 leading principles in relief, and to bring together closely 

 connected articles. I then read attentively Linnseus's 'Pun- 

 damenta ' and ' Philosophia Botanica ;' the criticism of the 

 first of those works by Heisterj^ Linnseus's contemporary ; 

 the chapter on nomenclature in De Candolle's ' Theorie Ele- 

 mentaire;' Lindley's chapters on nomenclature and syno- 

 nymy, in his ^Introduction to Botany;' the repertory of 

 laws on zoological nomenclature, presented to the British 

 Association, in 1842, by some very distinguished naturalists, 

 chiefly zoologists, — Strickland, Owen, Darwin, Phillips, 

 Waterhouse, Westwood, etc. ;^ the remarkable preface on 

 the nomenclature of genera in Agassiz' ' Nomenclator Zoo- 

 logicus;'^ and, finally, the chapter " De Denominatione Ani- 

 malium," in Van der Hoeven's 'Philosophia Zoological* 

 purposing, besides, to consult other authors on special points 

 more or less subject to controversy. Their perusal enabled 

 me to make some additions, but, to my great satisfaction, 

 it seemed to me I had obtained certain advantages over ana- 

 logous works of my predecessors. Linnaeus and Heister 

 hardly advert to anything but generic names, for all they 

 say in reference to the specific phrases formerly in use is 

 now inapplicable.* The English Committee had principally 



' Systema Plantarum, etc., cui annectuntur regulse de nominibus 

 Plantarum a eel. Linnsei longe diversse, 1 vol. in 8to, 48 pages, 1748. 



" Report of a Committee, etc., in Eeport of the British Association 

 for 1842, p. 105. 



2 One vol. in 4to, Soloduri, 1842-46. 



* One vol. in 870, Lugduni-Batav. 1864. 



" Linnseus's ' Fundamenta ' appeared in 1736 ; his ' Philosophia ' in 

 1751. The first edition of the ' Species' was published in 1753 ; but 

 Linnaeus had already made use of specific names, systematically reduced 

 to a single word, as far back as June, 1745, in his dissertation on Am- 

 phibia Gyllenhorgiana (Amcen. Acad. i. p. 107), and in botany ; and 

 again, in December, 1745, in his dissertation on Paasijlorm (Amoen. 

 Acad. i. p. 211). What appears to us, to-day, to be the happiest and 



