Nomenclature, 21b 



NOMENCLATURE. 



•$$ have desired to offer our readers an article on the impor- 

 tant subject of nomenclature, and had partly prepared one ; 

 but we find the requisite information so concisely and properly 

 summed up by Dr. Gray, that we are pleased to adopt his 

 remarks in preference of our own. 



The names of the Natural Orders, which are always plural, 

 sometimes express a characteristic feature of the group ; as for 

 instance, Leguminosa, or the Leguminous plants, such as the 

 Pea, Bean, &c, whose fruit is a legume ; Umbellifera, or Um- 

 belliferous plants, so named from having the flowers in an 

 umbel ; Composites, an order having what were termed com- 

 pound flowers by the earlier botanists ; Labiata, so called from 

 tfae labiate or two-lipped corolla which nearly all the species 

 exhibit ; Cruci/era, which have their four petals disposed in the 

 form of a cross. But more frequently, and indeed as a gene- 

 ral rule, the name is formed from that of some leading or well 

 known genus, which is prolonged into the adjective termination 

 acett. Thus, the plants of the order which comprises the Mal- 

 low, (Malva), are called Malvacea; that is, Planted Malvacea, 

 or in English, Malvaceous plants ; those of which the Rose, 

 (Rosa) is the well known representative, are Rosacea, or Rosa- 

 ceous plants. This termination in acea being reserved for 

 orders, should not be applied to suborders, or tribes ; which 

 usually bear the name of their principal or best known genus 

 in an adjective form, without such prolongation. Thus the 

 genus Rosa gives name to a particular tribe, Rosea, of the 

 order Rosacea ; the genus Malva to the tribe Malvea of the 

 order Malvacea. 



The number of genera in an order is quite as indefinite as 

 that of the orders in a class, or other great division. While 

 some orders are constituted of a single genus, as Equisetaceae, 

 Grossulaceae, &c, (just as many genera contain but a single 

 known species,) others comprise a large number ; nearly nine 

 hundred being embraced in the last general enumeration of the 

 Composite. The names of genera are Latin substantives, in 



