COMMENTARY. 67 



let an innovator take it into his head to write Hkr, nothing 

 is to prevent you supposing that the name begins by one of 

 the following combinations, even laying aside some of the 

 most unlikely :— Ha, Hae, Ha, He, Hi, Ho, Ho, Hoe, Hu, Hii, 

 Hy, Haa, Hae, Hai, Hao, Hau, Hea, Hee, Hei, Heo, Heu, 

 Hey, Hii, Hia, Hie, Hi», Hio, Hies, Hiu, Hoo, Hoa, Hoe, 

 Hoi, Hou, Hoy, Hua, Huae, Hue, Hui, Huu, Huy, Hya, Hyse, 

 Hye, Hyo, Hyo, Hyu (total 47). Between the h and the r, 

 you may hesitate between the same vowels ; and finally after 

 the r, there might likewise be found some one of the 47 

 kinds of vowels or diphthongs. If, however, there is no stop 

 after the r it will be thought that the name ends there. 4il x^sl 

 = 2209., - There may then be 2209 names hidden under the 

 abbreviation Hkr. The process of quoting completely the 

 first syllable and the beginning of the second is decidedly 

 the clearest, and is not sensibly longer. 



In a compound abbreviation, the omission of a stop where 

 letters are left out is always a fault j to put, for instance, 

 EBr., for Robert Brown; HBK., for Humboldt, Bonpland, 

 Kunth. 



Some defective abbreviations introduced into books have 

 become so common that there is hardly any one unacquainted 

 with them ; it would, consequently, be both difficult and use- 

 less to give them up. The name I bear, for example, ought 

 to be abridged either DeO., or D.C., or more regularly Cand., 

 instead of DC. which has prevailed. If any one were to 

 think of abbreviating Du Petit- Thenars by DP., he would 

 not be understood. 



The rules of abbreviation, as well as most others, suffer 

 exceptions which we are obHged to admit for the sake of 

 perspicuity, or of avoiding certain inconveniences that might 

 offer. It is customary, for instance, to abridge the word Saint 

 by S', Sanctus by S"' ; consequently, it is natural that the 

 name of Saint-Hilaire should be abridged by S* Hii. When 

 a name has been abridged thousands of times in an excep- 

 tional manner, beginners must be made acquainted with it. 

 Using a correct method would not undo what already exists, 

 and the same author would thus be designated in two dif- 



