130 
BRITISH BEES. 
naeus truly says, “Nomina si nescis, perit et cognitio 
rerum.” 
By a law tacitly admitted, but universally recognized, 
for tlie sake of securing to a name its intangibility, 
no two genera in the same kingdom of nature may be 
named alike. There is, therefore, if this rule be ob¬ 
served, no fear of similar names coming into collision in 
the same province, and thus producing confusion. A 
ready means to prevent the possibility of such mischance 
is the admirable work which has been published by 
Agassiz, with the assistance of very able coadjutors, in 
the ‘Nomenclator Zoologicus/ which is a list of all the 
generic names extant in zoology, exhibiting what names 
are already in use either appropriately or synonymously 
in this great branch of the natural world, and if this * 
work receive periodically its necessary supplements and 
additions, no excuse will remain for the repetition of a 
name already applied. The most defective character in 
this laborious work, is the frequent incorrectness of its 
etymology of the names of genera. It would be, perhaps, 
without such aid, too great a labour to require of the 
describing naturalist, or it might not be otherwise even 
practicable for him, to ascertain whether the generic 
name he purposes to impose be, or not, anticipated. 
The penalty of its being superseded is understood to 
attach to the imposition of such a name, for the altera¬ 
tion may be made with impunity, and thereby it becomes 
degraded to the rank of a mere synonym. 
Nomenclature has thus, by the happy invention of 
Linnaeus, been made a matter of the greatest simplicity, 
conciseness, and lucidity, and to him, therefore, our 
gratitude is due. 
An indispensable branch of nomenclature is Synonymy, 
