CHAP. IV. OF NOMENCLATURE AND TERMINOLOGY. 
457 
26. If new generic names are wanted, it must be first 
ascertained whether no one among the existing synonyms is 
appHcable. 
27. If an old genus is divided into several new ones, the 
old name will remain with the species that is best known. 
28. The termination and euphony of generic names are to 
be consulted, as far as practicable. 
29. Long, awkward, disagreeable names are to be avoided, 
such as Calophyllodendron of Vaillant, Coriotragematodend- 
ros of Plukenet, and the like. 
30. The names of classes and orders are subject to the same 
rules as those of genera. They ought always to express some 
essential and characteristic marks. 
31. The names of both classes and orders must always 
consist of a single word, and not of sentences. 
I have thought it right to give these Linnaean canons, 
firstly, because they are undoubtedly excellent in many re- 
spects; secondly, because we must attribute much of the 
greater perfection of natural history, since the time of Lin- 
naeus, to the adoption of them ; and, thirdly, because they are 
constantly appealed to, by the school of Linnaeus, as a 
standard of language, from which no departure whatever is 
allowable. 
It is, however, necessary to remark, that, notwithstanding 
the undoubted excellence of many of these rules, yet there 
are others, adherence to which is often out of the question, 
and which have, indeed, fallen wholly into disuse. It seems 
to be an admitted principle, that it is of little real importance 
what name an object bears, provided it serves to distinguish 
that object from every thing else. This is the material point, 
to which all other considerations are secondary : thus, if A. or 
B. are universally known by the names of Thomas or John, 
it is quite as well as if they were called William or James. 
This being so, it will follow that Nos. 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, and 16, 
of the Linnaean canons, are either frivolous or unimportant ; 
or, at least, that no person is bound, either in reason or by 
custom, to observe them. This is particularly apparent in 
considering the practice now universally adopted, although 
