132 
BRITISH BEES. 
for the describer has not thereby lost his rights, but 
revives to them with all due justice upon the cessation 
of this coma. The really culpable among such de- 
scribers are those who neglect to look around them to 
ascertain what has been done, and this course is some¬ 
times illicitly adopted to obtain a fleeting and mere¬ 
tricious fame, by the description of ostensibly new species, 
which critical investigators soon detect to have been long 
since known and very ably described. 
Thus, a complete synonymy, which can almost only 
come within the province of a monograph, would give, 
chronologically, the entire history of a species under all 
the names it has been known by in the several works in 
which it has been published. Nature is so uniform and 
stable that Aristotle’s descriptions can be clearly recog¬ 
nized, therefore there is no fear that whatever may 
have been synonymously, but yet correctly recorded of 
the economy of a species, can possibly be lost when once 
registered in the archives of science. 
The working out of a correct synonymy is an*ungrate- 
ful task of much labour, for few appreciate it, and not 
many use it, although when thoroughly elaborated it is 
so extremely valuable. 
A further rule in nomenclature is, that the generic 
name must always be a substantive; and it is alw r ays 
desirable that the specific name should be an adjective. 
In the event of the imposition of a proper name, which is 
sometimes done to record a private friendship, but im¬ 
properly so, for it is a distinction due only to promoters 
of the science, the genitive form must be adopted. 
The next grade in ascent from the species is invariably 
the Genus, for subgenera, like varieties in species, are not 
uniformly present, but are mere contingencies, even if 
they do properly exist. 
