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can be obtained from comparison with other words be neglected. Thus the common adjectival terminations, -osus, -ilis, -inus, -anus, -arius, -atus, &c., can be recognised, and their meaning arrived at by the consideration of English words of a similar ending. Moreover, if one or more syllables are found to occur in many different words, it may be presumed that they form a root; compare Cardium, Cardita, Cardiomerpha, and with the latter Callimorpha; Apteryx, Micropteryx, and Microspore; Diplacenthus, and Acanthoides. These parts should then be looked out separately; but there will often be a considerable amount of search required, and after all there will remain some, the derivation and meaning of which none but a practised investigator could discover, not to mention these which are incorrectly formed, and have in their present shape no meaning whatever. The chief difficulty lies in the Greek roots, for investigating which it is necessary to be acquainted not only with the value of the letters of the Greek alphabet, but also with the conventional changes which are made in expressing a Greek word in English letters. The chief are given below:—κ is generally represented by c, υ by y, ου by u, ει by i, αι by æ, and οι by œ. The last two are often further degraded into e, as the word becomes more Anglicised, e.g. palæozoic, paleozoic. Here again, of late years, innovations have been made, the result partly of carelessness, partly of a desire to keep more nearly the supposed ancient pronunciation. Thus diœcious and monœcious are sometimes written dioicous and monoicous, the οι being represented by oi, instead of by œ; similarly the first syllable of Cainozoic is really the same as the last syllable of Eocene.

It may, perhaps, illustrate the analytic process of finding the derivation of a given word, if we show the reverse, synthetic method of forming a word to represent a given idea. Thus, suppose we wish to invent a generic name which shalt mean "cleft-tooth," we find the Latin for "cleft" is fuss-us, for "tooth" dens, As the dens is to go last, we shall use, not the true stem dent-, but the nominative case; placing the two syllables together, and inserting i, we get Fissidens, the name of a genus of mosses which has the peristome-teeth cleft halfway down. Then comes the question, what is to be the gender of Fissidens. On this point the rule is clear and precise: it must have the same gender as the last component, i.e., since dens is masculine, Fissidens is masculine also. If, however, any termination is added, which generally ends in -us, -a, or -um, it is masculine, feminine, or neuter accordingly. For instance, from the same word dens we get Dentaria, which is feminine.

There are too many words in scientific language which are not formed according to these principles, bet still the vast majority obeys them, and it is for this reason that they concern all students of science, for upon them in great measure depends the pronunciation, as has been already pointed out in one case, and will be further illustrated in the following papers. In conclusion, it may be added that the rules have been founded in every case upon the practice of the best authorities, and, though many pots have been omitted for want of space, it is believed that all the chief variations of usage have been included.