40 THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE WEST COAST 



where such names are omitted, as being superfluous, the repeated 

 mention of them serving no good purpose. 



§ 43. Nomenclature, and Sequence of Genera. 



In the names of the genera, and the sequence of them I have 

 in this work followed pretty closely the classification of W. H. 

 Edwards, whom I consider by all odds the great butterfly captain 

 of his century, and his arrangement of them as sound and con- 

 servative, and based on a rock. I have, therefore, followed his 

 lead, and ignored the chaotic efforts of some later writers, in the 

 invention or adoption of new names, and in the changing about 

 of old names from one genus to another, as well as in the unnec- 

 essary and baseless sub-division of genera, and the general over- 

 turning of anything like order. I see no use or benefit in chang- 

 ing an old and accepted name for a new one, or in dividing a 

 moderate sized genus into many; it is too much like the child's 

 puerile play of piling up blocks or cards and knocking them down, 

 just for the pleasure of piling them up again. Science gains noth- 

 ing thereby ; knowledge is not increased, nor made more attractive 

 or accessible; but rather the contrary, it is obscured and covered 

 up, and the student is discouraged and disgusted. Moreover, no 

 two of the iconoclasts can agree among themselves, but each 

 heartily contemns the eflforts of the other. 



In other branches of Natural Science, as in botany, or coleop- 

 tera, a genus may contain fifty or more specific names, and no one 

 complains ; whereas, in diurnals, the genera usually contain but a 

 few names, and only one genus has ever any ways approached the 

 number of fifty. Edwards' system I, therefore, consider sound 

 and sensible, and I follow it, with but few and minor alterations. 



§ 44. All Forms Named. 



Names are given to butterflies to distinguish one form from 

 another; they have no other use. Therefore all distinct forms 

 should have distinctive names, but whether such names be specific, 

 varietal, or provisional, is of little moment, just now, at any rate. 

 But it is essential that every different form shall have a name that 

 belongs to it alone, and by which name it shall be known and 

 recognized, whether this author, himself, may happen to have one 

 specimen only, or a thousand. For, although any one form may 

 be rarely met with today, it may be common tomorrow, or may 

 be common today in some other place. 



