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The third declension differs from the other two, and presents some difficulty. Words of this class have many terminations, but they rarely end in -a, -e, or -er, never in -um. It is chiefly those ending in -us that can be mistaken. The peculiarities of the third declension are that the genitive singular abaya ends in -is, and has very often one syllable more than the nominative; the plural ends in -a or -es, according as the word is, or is not, neuter. It is an invariable rule that the plural of a neuter word ends in -a. For most of the words of this class recourse must be had to the dictionary, but the following table of the chief forms may ba useful. Notice that the true stem seldom appears in the nominative, but may be obtained from the genitive by removing the termination -is. Though there are rules for determining the gender, the only safe course is to refer to the dictionary. Examples of the fourth and fifth declensions are added for the sake of completeness.

Nouns.

The only important adjectives of this type end thus:—

Adjectives.

Thus we have Carduus palustris, Viola palustris, but Comarum palustre; Lotus major, Astrantia major, but Arctium majus; Ranunculus repens, Linaria repens, and Trifolium repens; as an example of the plural we may take Rodentia, the rodent animals.

There are many Greek words also in use, but in many or most cases they are Latinised, and will come under the rules already given. Only two, which do not, can be mentioned here.

1. ↑ Erratum In May Number (p. 124, bottom line)—For "polyzoon," read "polyzoan," after the analogy of entomostracan, infusorian, &c.