NOM 
omans, was ufually a flave, who attended perfons that 
ftood candidates for offices, and prompted or fug ggefted to 
them the names of all the citizens they met, that they might 
court them, and call them by the ich among 
that people was the highelft aa of civi 
NomMENCLATOR of the R fase was an officer, 
whofe bufinefs . was to cal te perfons whom the pope 
invited to din 
e alfo liftened to thofe who were admitted to. audience, 
in ie ine manner as thofe now retained by the cardinals, 
al of . more “fal words in any language, vith 
their fignifications; compiled in order to facilitate the ufe 
and retaining of fuch words to thofe who are to learn the 
tongue: 
We have Latin, Greek, French, &c. nomenclatures. 
OMENCLATURE, in Botany, which in its origin muft have 
been entirely a and which, long after the {crence ha d 
a Bota em, on 
athe the relly i in see Philof opbia ; but he Se a aah more 
ample eluci dation of them, in vo volume, entitled Critica 
Botanica. work, being very rare in England, = not 
here ape - a it deferves. Its obje 
u ch it was written e 
re nce thofe diffentions which took place under the Tri- 
ournefort and 
de 
deed remained with Tournefort, . confequence 
merits in 
they could be marfhalled with more precifion, fo as to 
augmented from time to tim without endangering the 
raid - the iene by produce anarchy inftead of 
ength 
“Generic 
old names, whofe ori 
ef antiquity, were applied with as much eae they 
could, iy body difputed about w be called 
wereus or Rofa, nor were the faitidious doubts of critics 
NOM 
the progrefs of what they could not always advance. ‘The 
Gtice of dedicating certain Lacie to the honour 
the {cien 
of promoters of the {ctence, was confirmed and imitated. 
New appellations were neceflarily coated for n enera, 
in which regard ad, as much as poflible, to their cha- 
lufions, not with 
f 
eace, 
the department of nomenclature os efpecially, by perfons 
who thought they at ies a fort of confequence by differ- 
ing from him, and who found it ia to do fo by inventing 
new names, than by 1 facoune upon his charaéters or defcrip- 
tions, or by adding any thing to his information. 
The fpecific names o Boy s were not fo fpeedily efta- 
blifhed as the generic ones. ournefort muft yield the 
The latter firft attempted 
as Ray, fpoke of the fpecies a Pads either in the phrafes 
of old bo* een or in fimilar ones of their own contriv- 
ance, into w the utmoft laxity of ideas was admitted. 
Hearfay coalition random comparifons, or the native 
country of the plants, as frequently enter into fuch phrafes, 
as their difcriminative marks ; nor are the latter, when the 
occur, chofen with an invariable regard to what is found 
The length of thefe phrafes renders them 
in general impoffible to be a and the want of 
t 
cde on aiel, what he 
ut which are in fac {pecific 
n was, that thefe fhould fuppiant 
i e them as con- 
is the any acm 
oe part of botany, a 
ants. Something 
u new difcoveries, 
and is liable to sbundane of wtettions befides. Iti aan 
