REMARKS UPON ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 



521 



The water, not coloured, leaves very little residuum, and the taste is very 

 slight ; which makes me think that the plant is one of those of which 

 the excretions are very trifling, and scarcely perceptible. But this 

 conclusion is drawn from a single and very short experiment made on 

 a plant scarcely developed. 



In concluding this memoir, which should have contained the exami- 

 nation of more families and individuals had the time permitted, I shall 

 recount that the results deduced are : First, That most vegetables 

 exude by their roots substances useless to vegetation ; Second, That the 

 nature of these substances varies according to the families of the ve- 

 getables that produce them ; Third, That some being pungent and 

 resinous may hu:t, and others being sweet and gummy may contribute 

 to, the nourishment of other vegetables ; Fourth, That these facts tend 

 to confirm the theory of the rotation of crops suggested by M. De 

 Candolle. 



REMARKS UPON ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE AND 

 SYSTEMS OF CLASSIFICATION. 



BY SOLITARIUS. 



cc Without names," it has been truly said, " the knowledge of 

 things perishes." It is evident, that to distinguish one thing from 

 another, and to point out to which in particular we allude, it becomes 

 absolutely necessary to call it by some name. Hundreds of beings are 

 in existence, which, though found upon careful examination to be 

 widely distinct from each other, pass with the unscientific community 

 under the same denomination. Let us select one instance out of the 

 many that could be adduced. The numerous and beautiful insects 

 composing the order Lepidoptera, are spoken of in common parlance 

 merely as moths and butterflies, and when persons are desirous of 

 speaking in less vague and general terms, they endeavour, but in vain, 

 to particularise the sort of moth or butterfly they mean, by describing 

 it, perhaps, as a red moth, a white moth, or a red butterfly, a white 

 butterfly, little conscious that such colours are possessed by a multitude 

 of moths and butterflies, differing materially in their habits from the 

 one to which they allude. I will not at present, however, enter into 

 illustrations of the inconvenience arising from the ambiguity and 

 paucity of terms in our language, relating to the different objects in 

 nature, nor expose the imperfections of common unscientific descrip- 



