30 
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE 
J. Geographical names, being for the most part adjectives, should he avoided in 
naming genera. (B. A.) The termination ensis is only applicable to names of species 
derived from the name of their habitat. 
K. Technical names expressing trades or professions should only be used when 
they have a special relation to the habits or characters of the organism designated. 
(B. A.) Ex. Arvicola; Pastor; Regulus, etc. If this caution were disregarded, such 
names would be highly objectionable. 
L. Mythological names are best applied in cases where a direct allusion can be 
traced between the narrated actions of a personage and the observed habits or struc- 
ture of an animal. Thus when the name Progne is given to a swallow, Clotho to a spi- 
der, Nestor to a gray-headed parrot, etc., a pleasing and beneficial connection is estab- 
lished between classical literature and natural science. (B. A.) 
M. Names expressing positive characters are to be preferred to comparative names 
in most cases, though occasionally a diminutive may be employed without disadvan- 
tage. 
§XXV. In naming subgenera or sections of a genus beside the recom- 
mendations under the last head, the following additional precautions may 
advantageously be attended to. (DC.) 
A . For the principal divisions of a genus, if it be decided to apply names to them at 
all, it is well to adopt such as recall the genus itself by some modification or addition. 
B. The chief modifications in use in nomenclature are as follows : — before a Greek 
derivative Eu and pseudo; after it, a strum , oides, or opsis; before a Latin derivative 
sub; after it ella , una, ina , ites, etc. Usage has justified to some extent the application 
of these modifications to words of uncertain etymology or arbitrary formation, in con- 
nection with which the Greek syllables are best entirely avoided. 
C. The application of these modifications should be governed by the subjoined re- 
strictions. 
(1) The prefixes pseudo and sub should, especially the latter, be reserved for use 
with specific names, though the f ormer may rarely be applicable to the name of a ge- 
neric group which has been confounded with another whose name is not of Latin ex- 
traction. Eu may be used before generic names when they are derived from the Greek 
language. 
So far as specific appellations are concerned pseudo may be employed when it is de- 
sired to connect the name of a species with that of another with which the former has 
been confounded. (Bourg.) 
Sub maybe itsed in designating a new species before the name of another with which 
the first has intimate relations. It has also a few legitimate Latin compounds which 
may be used for specific names, such as subterranea, etc. 
(2) The suffixes ella , una, ina, ites (Latin), and astrum, oides, opsis (Greek), etc., may 
be applied to generic or specific names. 
The termination ella, una, ina, are used at the end of generic names derived from 
the Latin, to indicate that the genus indicated by the radical to which the termination 
is appended, resembles, in some way, the new genus. 
They are also used in reforming a name which is inadmissible for any reason, in 
order to preserve a convenient similarity. For instance, Ccecilia , if employed for a 
shell (but already in use in vertebrates or insects) might be modified to Coecilianella, in 
order that convenience in the consultation of tables or indices might be conserved for 
the new name in connection with the old one. 
In the first sense these sutfixes are also used in forming specific names. 
The termination ites is found convenient for designating fossil organisms analogous 
to the living form, whose generic name is the radical to which ites is appended. It is 
rarely used with specific names. The terminations astrum, opsis, iscus , etc., may be 
used in connection with generic or specific names. 
Bourguignat suggests that astrum be appended to the name of a genus to indicate its 
typical subdivision, and be reserved for this purpose, but this has not beep adopted. 
