52 LAWS OF NOMENCLATURE. 



The newly-proposed method consists in always quoting 

 for a species the name of the author who first named and 

 described it^ laying aside^ as it were, the name of the genus 

 to which that species has been referred by the botanists that 

 have followed. Among the advocates of this method, some 

 are satisfied with quoting the author of the species, without 

 any explanation whatsoever ; others, especially zoologists, 

 add (sp.) to the name, implying that the author has made 

 the species only ; and others, more conscientious, suh such a 

 genus. Thus, MattMola tristis (L. sub Gh&irantho) implies 

 the species that Linnseus named Gheiranthus tristis, and 

 that another (the synonymy tells us that it was Brown) 

 called MattMola tristis. Let us take the method under this 

 last form, evidently the most perfected, and let us see in 

 what way it has been supported and attacked. We will 

 afterwards give our own opinion. 



The Committee of the British Association expressed itself 

 in the following manner, through the medium of Mr. Strick- 

 land 1 : — " We conceive that the author who first describes 

 and names a species which forms the groundwork of later 

 generalizations, possesses a higher claim to have his name 

 recorded than he who afterwards defines a genus which is 

 found to embrace that species, or who may be the mere ac- 

 cidental means of bringing the generic and specific names 

 into contact. By giving the authority for the specific name 

 in preference to all others, the inquirer is referred directly 

 to the original description, habitat, etc., of the species, and 

 is at the same time reminded of the date of its discovery." 

 According to this, Muscicarpa cri/nita L., since referred to 

 the genus Tyrannus, ought to be indicated thus, Tyrannus 

 crinitus L. (sp.), and, says a note at the foot of the page, 

 Tyrannus crinitus L. would perhaps be preferable, from its 

 brevity. 



In the preface of his ' Nomenclator Zoologicus' (p. xxv), 



M. Agassiz strenuously resisted this. He first praises Linnaeus 



for having said, " Nomen specificum nil est nisi distinctio 



specierum sub suo genere. Nulla dari potest difi'erentia 



' Eeport of the Brit. Assoc, for 1842, p. 120. 



