1863.] 
259 
on N. A. Ornithology. (^Mon. Calopt. pp. 1, 2, and Mon. Gomph. 
pp. ], 2.) 
Here we may remark that, although the old established divisions of 
Kingdom, Sub-Kingdom (or Branch as Agassiz calls it,) Class, Order, 
Family, Genus and Species are employed by all modern Naturalists in 
same relative subordination, and have been beautifully and ingeniously 
defined by Agassiz, yet the term “ Tribe” is used in very difierent 
senses by different modern systematists. For example. Dr. Hagen, as 
we saw above, considers the “Tribe” as intermediate between the 
“ Family” and the “Subfamily”; the authors of the Monographie and 
Prof. Baird consider it as intermediate between the “Suborder” and 
the “ Family”; and modern Coleopterists consider it as intermediate be¬ 
tween the “ Subfamily” and the “ Genus.” (Leconte Introd. Class. 
Coleop.y^assm.) It is very desirable that the meaning of this and sim¬ 
ilarly indefinite terms should be settled with precision, and also that 
some peculiar termination should be adopted universally for every sys¬ 
tematic subdivision. Probably this could only be effected by the action 
of a Scientific Congress. Individual authors, Prof. Baird for example, 
are already aiming at it, but there is a lack of unanimity amongst them. 
Without some such technical assistance it is every day becoming more 
impossible for the human memory to grasp the infinite multiplicity of 
modern scientific analysis. When Dr. Hagen, for example speaks sim¬ 
ply of Agrionina, who is to tell, except by guessing from the context, 
whether he means the tribe Agrionina or the subfamily Agrionina ? 
And so in Coleoptera, when Dr. LeConte speaks simply of Carabidae. 
who is to tell, with the requisite scientific precision, whether the family 
Carabidae or the subfamily Carabidae is referred to ? 
SYNOPTICAL TABLE OF THE SUBFAMILIES OF THE 
FAMILY ODONATA. SUBFAMILIES 
f 
1st Tribe. AG- 
EIONINA. 
Wings alike, 
vertically fol- ^ 
dedin repose. 
(Eyes remote 
and pedunc- 
led.) i 
Antecubital cross-veins numerous, atleast 
five in number. (Wings almost always 
not petiolated.) 
Antecubital cross-veins two only. (Wings 
always distinctly petiolated.) 
1. Calopterygina. 
2. Agrionina. 
