63 LAWS OP NOMEKCLATURB. 



teurs must needs render them somewhat apprehensive of 

 ridicule ; now, the making of names that are immediately to 

 be reduced to the rank of synonyms, the letting oneself be 

 called a species-monger by serious botanists, — ^is not this 

 ridiculous enough, and more likely to touch self-love than 

 any other process ? 



We cannot, however, but admit that there are naturalists 

 who have the weakness to demand that their names be aflBxed 

 for ever to the species that they have described, or referred to 

 their genera. Their desire is complied with by citing syno- 

 nyms. To go farther : to quote the name of the author who, 

 you think, has improperly referred a species to a genus, is to 

 encourage superficial people to describe and to name without 

 troubhng themselves about the genus, — that is, to overlook 

 much more important characters than those of species, and to 

 neglect the study of affinities.' 



Another word on an argument brought forward by one of 

 the last authors we have quoted. 



It is to be regretted that genera should not all be self- 

 evident, and that, by their not having been distinguished 

 from the very first, we should frequently be obliged to hesi- 

 tate, to create, or to overthrow such or such a genus, to move 

 species from one to another, etc. But, may we ask, are 

 species immutable ? Not in any way. They are diversely 

 understood ; they are divided, they are united, etc., as are 

 genera, perhaps more so than genera. The characters given 

 of them in books are not determined. They have to be 

 altered when a species is transferred to another genus, 

 as it has then to be compared with other species. Of 

 these two things, the species and the genus, neither of 

 which unhappily is well determined, the genus is neverthe- 

 less to be considered as the stand-point, because the charac- 

 ters on which it is founded are more apparent, more import- 

 ant, and less variable, and because the number of genera 

 being less considerable than that of species, we are nearer 

 knowing all those that exist ; we mean, of course, all natural 

 genera, for we do not allow of any others. 

 ' Shuttleworth, 1. c. 



