ON ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 
29 
The recommendations of the B. A. committee contain an objection to personal 
names in zoological genera, but the practice has been carried to such an extent that 
even if it were still less desirable, any prohibitory rule or recommendation would be 
unavailing. However, names having a modern political or religious significance 
should be particularly avoided. 
§XXIV. Naturalists who may propose generic names will conform to 
good taste and benefit nomenclature by regarding the subjoined recom- 
mendations. 
A. Avoid very long names and such as are difficult to pronounce. As a general 
rule it may be recommended to avoid introducing words of more than five syllables. 
Ex. Craxirex; Esclischoltzia; Thecoclontosaurus; Strongylocentrotus, etc. (DC., B. A., 
etc.) 
B. Indicate the etymology of each name. 
Great confusion has resulted from endeavors on the part of authors to correct names 
of which the etymology was uncertain, but which seemed to them to be erroneously 
constructed. When the etymology is given this question can be accurately and 
promptly decided and no confusion result. (B. A., DC., etc.) 
C. If an author has proposed a genus which has not been admitted, he should most 
carefully avoid creating another under the same name. 
Nothing is more inconvenient in synonymy than to have to explain that a certain 
genus of any author is not the genus bearing the same name and of the same author, 
but of a different epoch. In general, a generic name which is known to have once 
been used in botany or zoology, should be studiously avoided forever afterward in any 
other connection in the department in which it was once introduced. (DC., B. A., etc.) 
See under head of names to be rejected. 
D. Avoid forming names from barbarous or savage tongues unless they may be 
found more or less frequently cited in books of travel, and present a euphonic combi- 
nation easily adapted to the Latin forms. (DC.) 
E. Recall, if possible, in the composition or termination of the name the affinities or 
analogies of the genus. Ex. Many genera of fossils appropriately end in ites, many 
of ferns in pteris, etc. 
F. Avoid all adjective names. 
The names of genera are in all cases essentially substantive, and hence adjective 
terms cannot be employed without violence to grammatical construction, and their use 
is prirna facie evidence of a want of good taste. The same may be said of names in 
the genitive case which are wholly inadmissible without reformation. (B. A., DC., Ver.) 
G. Avoid giving names which in sound or spelling closely resemble other names 
already proposed, even when the etymology of the two words is divei’se. Ex. Leuco 
dare , Leucodora; Otostomia , Odostomia , etc., etc. 
The danger of confusion in such cases is self-evident, and the naturalist mindful of 
the objects of nomenclature will endeavor to avoid them. 
H. In compounding a lxame from two other names, the essential or l’adical pai'ts of 
both should be retained and the changes confined to their variable terminations. 
(B. A., DC., Th ) 
A name compounded of the first half of one woi'd, and the latter half of another, 
is an ungrammatical monstrosity; e. g., Loxigilla , from Loxia and Fringilla. 
In other cases when the commencement of both words is retained, the excision may 
still be too gx’eat; e. g., Bucorvus from Buceros and Corvus. 
In general compound words are open to objection from their too great length, or the 
liability of introducing a barbarism in endeavoring to render them shorter; but, when 
compounded with care and not too long they may occasionally be used with advantage 
in designating intermediate genera. (B. A.) 
I. Avoid compounding names from two different languages. (B. A., Th.) 
Such names are great deformities in nomenclature, and are, when one of the parts 
is of an adjective character, reasonably considered by most authors as subject to re- 
formation or rejection. 
