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the group of animals to which we now restrict the name, and so far the idea suggested by these terminations is applicable to the ease. It may be noticed that it is customary to use -iadæ for all words ending in -ia, as Crania, Craniadæ, and for all others to affix -idæ to the true stem, as Mactra, Mactridæ; Helix, Helicidæ; Bos, Bovidæ. As usual this rule is sometimes, though without reason, infringed, as in Cerithium, Cerithiadæ; Arca, Arcadæ.

Something, also, must be said about specific names, which are not adjectives. First among these are the so-called complimentary names, used in the genitive case. When the name of a modern man or woman is to be Latinised, the usual plan is to add -us of -ius, as may be most euphonious, for the one, and -a or -ia for the other, with the ordinary genitives. This, of course, does not apply to complimentary generic names, e.g., Linnæa, Hookeria, which are always feminine. Thus, Rafflesia Arnoldi means "Arnold's Rafflesia," and commemorates not only Dr. Joseph Arnold, its discoverer, but also Sir Stamford Raffles, the Governor of Sumatra at the time of its discovery; in Lepidium Smithii two i's are used to produce a smoother sound; Nitophyllum Hutchinsiæ is Miss Hutchins' Nitophyllum. These should always be spelled with a capital letter, as also should adjectives derived from proper names, but in this latter respect practice differs. Both Siiene Angiica and S. anglica are found, and some hare even ventured to write hookerianus. It may be presumed that this license, so foreign to both the English and the classical tongues, has been imported from the Continent, as it is in accordance with the usage of the French and other languages. Still another class of specific names should he written with a capital initial, those which are nouns in the nominative case, which have been for the most part originally the names of genera, as in Potentilla Tormentilla, Poterium Sanguisorba, Hipparchia Tithonus. The last two instances show pointedly that these, not being adjectives, do not necessarily agree in gender with the generic name. There is, finally, the class represented by Pieris brassicæ, which means the Pieris "of the cabbage," because the larva of that butterfly feeds upon the cabbage. These should, properly, not be spelled with a capital, (though this is sometimes done,) and are in the genitive case, either singular or plural, They are most common among the names of Lepidoptera, as Anthocharis cardamines, Sphinx convolvuli, Thecla quercus, but are not wanting in other places. Thus Rosa dumetorum means the rose "of the thickets;" Æeidium compositarum, the Æeidium "of the Compositæ;" and, to take an example from the "Midland Naturalist" of March, Amphistoma hominis, the Amphistoma "of man."

In order to find out the meaning of a scientific term, it is necessary for one not accustomed to the search to form first some idea of the kind of word he has in hand, in doing which it is hoped the previous observations will be of use. The word should then be looked out in the dictionary as a whole; if it he not found, as will very often be the case, it must next he considered what are its probable component parts. In this the inserted i or o is of great assistance, nor should the help which