SOME PROBLEMS OF TAXONOMY 
303 
is the very point on which it is necessary to have some authority 
such as the rules for a dependable common basis. The trouble 
through all the years has been just that which is made by these 
objections , namely that every systematist has some favorite opin- 
ion to which he holds like grim death in the face of all opposition. 
Perhaps the writer too has favorite theories, and is championing 
them as radically by supporting the International Rules, but 
since this support occasions some extreme modifications of his 
own wishes in the matter of nomenclature, it can hardly be 
classed with the opinions here mentioned. 
The desire to make exceptions is also displayed by even so 
great an authority as Dr. Handlirsch.-' In his considerations of 
“Nomenklatur, Typen und Zitate,’' this writer formulates a series 
of rules of nomenclature drawn from various sources. He uses 
the International Rules for the fixation of genotypes, but in con- 
nection with his rule eight on priority, taken from the same 
source, proposes the following exceptions: ''Ausgenommen von 
Umstossung auf Grund der Prioritatsregel sind nur solche Na- 
men die ganz allgemein bekannt und in vielen Hand — und Lehr- 
buchern eingeburgert oder niedizinisch, technisch bzw. Okono- 
misch von Bedeutung sind, sowie solche, auf Grund deren ein 
allgemein gebrafichlicher Name hoherer Kategorien errichtet 
wurde, so dass durch Ungultigkeitserklarung des einen Namens 
auch die anderen umgestossen werden mfissten.’’ This is a com- 
ponent of the International Botanical Rules. It seems utterly 
impossible for such a rule to produce a uniform result in the 
hands of all systematists. Who shall say what degree of familiar- 
ity constitutes this right to stand? Moreover, what if a few 
usages do have to be changed? Many now common were made 
to supplant others of a more logical nature years ago, when the 
older usages had stood for decades. For example, comma was 
cited as the type of Hesperia by Dalman in 1816 (fidx ScudderJ, 
and the genus was used in this sense by competent writers as 
late as 1883, only to be removed at last to the place which it has 
since occupied with malvae as the accepted type. 
As the International Rules stand, they are a satisfactory work- 
ing basis for the stabilization of nomenclature, and should not 
be radically changed. By denying the use of the so-called re- 
strictions, and by accepting as the type of a genus the first species 
Schroder, Handbuch der Entomologie iii, 83, 1913. 
