ON ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 
27 
taste of naturalists, which in the course of time will practically decide the question; 
especially since no fundamental principle is endangered by allowing some latitude in 
the matter. 
§ XVIII. Botanical subfamilies ( subordines ) are formed from the name 
of one of the genera contained in them with the termination ece or niece, 
and also the names of tribes and subtribes which take the termination ece. 
Ex. Bosece from Bosa, etc. 
Permanency of Names of the Higher Hank. 
§XIX. Names of higher rank than genera, with the fluctuation of their 
limits caused by the advance of science, are not rigidly subject to the lex 
prioritatis. 
While this generalization has not been formally enunciated in the B. A. rules it has 
become practically the general usage of naturalists. Thorell explicitly adopts it, and 
indeed it is impracticable to follow any other course, especially in relation to the more 
ancient names. A time will doubtless arrive when mutations in the names of the 
higher groups, particularly families, will be as unnecessary as they are undesirable, 
hut in zoology that period has not yet come. 
It should be clearly borne in mind that such changes are only allowable when by 
mutation of the characters or through newly discovered facts, the name in question 
has become glaringly erroneous, or liable to introduce errors or confusion into science. 
In family names this occurs most often when a genus from whose name that of the 
family may have been taken is removed from association with the majority of genera 
which that family has included, and the said genus is inserted in another family which 
has already a well established name. Also, when a large number of genera are re- 
distributed into families, widely differing in their limits from those in which they had 
previously been known. In either of these cases the liability to induce error may be 
so great as to render a new name desirable. The answers to query XXIII of the cir- 
cular indicate that a majority of American naturalists concur in this conclusion. 
On names of Genera and. Subdivisions of Genera of Higher 
Bank than Species. 
§ XX. Genera, subgenera, or sections, receive names, preferably sub- 
stantives, which bear the same relation to each other that the proper 
family or surnames of individual men do to one another. (DC., Bourg.) 
These names may be taken from any source whatever, or may be framed 
in an absolutely arbitrary manner, subject to the following conditions. 
(DC., G. E. G.) 
De Candolle justly remarks that it is with generic names as with our patronymics. 
Many surnames are inconvenient or even absurd from bearing an adjective form, from 
having an inapplicable meaning, on account of being difficult to pronounce, or for 
some other reason. But, since they actually exist, why should they be changed ? It 
is not the end of science to make names. She avails herself of them to distinguish 
things. If a name is properly formed and different from other names the essential 
points are attained. 
Generic names may be taken from certain characters or appearances of the group, 
from the chief habitat, names of persons, common names and even from arbitrary 
combinations of letters. It is enough if they are properly constructed and do not lead 
to confusion or error. 
