1884.] 169 [Garman. 



to be adopted hastily. The opportunity it affords a writer to re- 

 place the name of the preceding authority by his own, whenever by 

 duplication, displacement or addition he may change the name of 

 a species, does not enhance its value. 



I have already, in a list of Batrachia and Reptilia, as an answer 

 to the assertion that "there is no other or better method/' par- 

 tially suggested one which affords the means of retaining the bino- 

 mials, making them indicate the subdivisions recognizable only by 

 the expert, and at the same time fixing upon forms seen without 

 close comparison to be distinct names at present more or less 

 familiar to the general observer from long use. Take for purpose 

 of illustration a single species including several varieties. Each 

 of the forms may be represented by the generic and specific names 

 preceded by a symbol indicating the subdivision and its extent. 

 The symbol represents the history, the description and synonymy 

 of the race or variety ; it appeals to the specialist in particular. 

 In the list a species would appear thus : 



Amblystoma tigrinum Green ; Baird. 



(A) Salamandra tigrina Green, 1825, Jour. Phil. Ac, v, 116. 



(B) Amblystoma bicolor Hallow., 1857, Pr. Phil. Ac, 215. 



(C) Amblystoma mavortium Baird, 1849, Jour. Phil. Ac, Ser. 2, i, 292. 



(D) Amblystoma californiense Gray, 1853, Pr. Zool. Soc Lond., xi, pi. 1, 



etc., etc 



Desiring to call the attention to the fourth form, it is not neces- 

 sary to spell it out ; it is simply the (D) form, and is to be written 

 (D) Amblystoma tigrinum. As it precedes the name, the symbol 

 catches the eye at once and shows that it is a variety of the species 

 and not the species itself which is dealt with. In this position it 

 is out of the way of the abbreviations used to note the authorities, 

 and being a letter it cannot be confused with the number of speci- 

 mens. The order in which the letters are given is immaterial. 

 The (B) may be nearest the (A) in order of discovery, or it may 

 not ; it may be nearest in affinity, or it may not. There are 

 chances that (K) or (M) may be found to have been discovered 

 previously ; or a form discovered to-morrow may be more closely 

 allied to (A) than (B), (C) or (D). A chronological or genetic 

 arrangement of to-day may be disarranged by discoveries of to- 

 morrow. Until our knowledge of the species is more complete we 



