Scientific name

“ When common names are to be used, as in less formal publications, scientific names must also be given either at the place where the common ones first appear in the paper, in a footnote, or in an appended list. Only scientific names identify the species for all readers. ”

“ With the large numbers of plants and animals that are living today, plus those of the past, random naming would result in much confusion. For this reason scientists have established strict rules that must be followed when a specimen is named. The strict application of these rules enables scientists in all parts of the world to assign scientific names without fear of duplication. ”

“ There should be no antagonism in the use of scientific and popular names, since their purposes are quite different. Science demands certainty and universality, and hence a single universal name for each plant. For this the Latin has been adopted, and the Latin name should be used, when only scientific objects are sought. But the vernacular names are a part of the growth and development of the language of each people. ”

“ Except on subjects for which there has been constructed a scientific terminology, with which unscientific persons do not meddle, great difficulty is generally found in bringing a new name into use; and independently of that difficulty, it is natural to prefer giving to a new object a name which at least expresses its resemblance to something already known, since by predicating of it a name entirely new we at first convey no information. In this manner the name of a species often becomes the name of a genus ”

“ We are chiefly indebted to the great Swedish scientist Linnæus for the scientific method of naming animals. For his purpose, Linnæus used the Latin as the universal language of science. For example, he named the dog in his classification Canis familiaris, using a generic word and a specific word—just as they are used in the name of George Washington. In scientific classification, however, these names have become abstract terms, and they represent certain grades or degrees of resemblance which are spoken of as species, genera, families, orders, classes, and so on. ”

“ Yet many of the most remarkable and familiarly known animals and plants never acquire a name other than the scientific one, compounded of Latin or Greek, which the laity adopt in common with scientists, and never even dream that they are using the technical language of science. ”

“ As regards the names of species of animals or plants, but a small proportion are ever recognized in any vernacular tongue, because unknown to the average layman. When discovered and made known by science, a vernacular name is often invented for them, as well as a scientific one. ”

“ The Catalogue of Life, for example, has done a remarkable job in assembling lists of almost all the world’s species. But there are no rules on how to choose between competing lists of validly named species. ”

“ To know the scientific names of animals without being acquainted with the animals themselves is a habit to be avoided, and is just about as instructive as memorising the names of people in a town or telephone directory. But animals must be named ”

“ To identify each species as definitely as possible, authorities are given for scientific names. Authorities for grass names are from Hitchcock’s 1951 manual. [4] The others were compiled from various sources by Dr. L. C. Hulbert, Department of Botany, Kansas State University, chiefly from these sources: Gray’s Manual, 8th ed., [5] The New Illustrated Britton and Brown, [6] and Harrington’s Manual. [7] Occasionally other sources were used for a few or for single species. ”

“ The chief difficulty in the definition of scientific names consists in determining exactly the nature of the things denoted by them, as in classifying plants and animals. If organic species are free growths, continually changing, however gradually, according as circumstances give some advantage to one form over others, we may expect to find such species branching into varieties, which differ considerably from one another in some respects, though not enough to constitute distinct species. ”

“ Science possesses two splendid examples of a systematic nomenclature; that of plants and animals, constructed by Linnæus and his successors, and that of chemistry, which we owe to the illustrious group of chemists who flourished in France toward the close of the eighteenth century. In these two departments, not only has every known species, or lowest Kind, a name assigned to it, but when new lowest Kinds are discovered, names are at once given to them on a uniform principle. ”

“ There is a comforting fact, however, for the novice, that while scientific nomenclature has been and is constantly changing, the common names, that science also recognizes, remain practically unchanged. ”

“ From time to time various persons, presumably intelligent collectors, have asked why we cannot dispense with scientific names of birds and use the English altogether. Such a peculiar proceeding has even found favor with the prophet of all good amateur ornithologists,–Dr. Coues. Mr. Hornaday [1] and Mr. Stephens [2] demand that all birds and mammals be supplied with common names. Their claim seems to be that trivial names are more easily comprehended by the public than scientific names. ”

“ Little has been done beyond the giving and frequent altering of scientific names, and the misapplication of names of animals and plants living in other lands to often totally different animals and plants here, so that confusion has reigned supreme. ”

“ CODE Part I: Principles. 1.The primary object of formal nomenclature in systematic biology is to secure stability, uniformity and convenience in the designation of plants and animals. 2.Botanical nomenclature is treated as beginning with the general application of binomial names of plants (Linnaeus' Species Plantarum, 1753) . 3.Priority of publication is a fundamental principle of botanical nomenclature. Two groups of the same category cannot bear the same name. ”

“ No other science offers so singular a system of nomenclature, so far outside of scientific conceptions. In botany, zoölogy, and topography, objects have distinctive names. We are universally accustomed to apply to the things we speak of designations that belong to them; but a system by itself, a figurative nomenclature, is applied to the groups of stars. ”

“ Though we can not indicate the distinctive properties of the Kind, we may indicate its nearest natural affinities, by incorporating into its name the name of the proximate natural group of which it is one of the species. On this principle is founded the admirable binary nomenclature of botany and zoology. In this nomenclature the name of every species consists of the name of the genus, or natural group next above it, with a word added to distinguish the particular species. ”

“ The necessity for these rules of nomenclature arose from the great confusion that has existed through the many different botanical names for the same species or genera. Some species have had from 10 to 20 different names, and, worse still, different plants have often had the same name. For about 200,000 known species of plants there are not fewer than 700,000 recorded names. ”

“ A point at which they have laid themselves more open to criticism is, that for want of antiquarian research, they have adopted some changes of the commonly received nomenclature,which do not yet attain to the ultimate Q. E. I. of the very earliest scientific nomenclature. ”

“ Synonymy and Priority.—Synonymy is the record of the names applied at different times to the same group or species. With characteristic pungency Dr. Coues defines synonymy as "a burden and a disgrace to science." It has been found that the only way to prevent utter confusion is to use for each genus or species the first name applied to it and no other. The first name, once properly given, is sacred because it is the right name. All other later names whatever their appropriateness are wrong names. In science, of necessity, a name is a name without any necessary signification. ”

“ The vast importance of nomenclature to natural science is exemplified in that of chemistry. This nomenclature is, in fact, the best instance of the invention of a language in modern scientific annals. There is a rational principle obvious. The new words explain themselves. A great deal of the time of students of all sciences is used up in settling the meaning of words,—defining ”

“ I have been led of late to reflect much on the subject of naming, and I have come to a fixed opinion that the plan of the first describer's name, being appended for perpetuity to a species, had been the greatest curse to Natural History. ”

“ Biologists have decided that he who first distinctly characterizes and names a species or other group shall thereby cause the name thus used to become permanently affixed, but under certain conditions adapted to a growing science which is continually revising its classifications. ”

“ I may perhaps take the liberty of remarking that the system of terms which he has constructed, may, according to our principles, be called rather a Terminology than a Nomenclature: that is, they are analogous more nearly to the terms by which botanists describe the parts and organs of plants, than to the names by which they denote genera and species. As we have seen in the History, plants as well as animals are subject to morphological laws; and the names which are given to organs in consequence of those laws are a part of the Terminology of the science. ”

“ All that is not strictly definition, that is, all that is not artificial character, in the descriptions of such classes, is a statement of truths, more or less general, more or less precise, but making up, together, the positive knowledge which constitutes the science. As we have said, the consideration of the properties of plants in order to form a system of classification, has been termed Taxonomy, or the Systematick of Botany ”

“ Thirdly, as, besides the artificial classes which are marked out from neighbouring classes by definite properties to be arrived at by abstraction, there are classes, viz. kinds, distinguished severally by an unknown multitude of independent properties (and about which classes therefore many assertions will be made) , there must be a name for every kind. That is, besides a terminology, there must be a nomenclature, i.e. a collection of the names of all the lowest kinds, or infimæ species. The Linnæan arrangements of plants and animals, and the French of chemistry, are nomenclatures. ”

“ When a student enters the field of independent research, he is usually but imperfectly acquainted with the principles of nomenclature which should be followed in palaeontological work. After losing himself in a maze of endless synonyms and confused terminology, he recognises the desirability of adopting some definite and consistent plan in his method of naming genera and species. It is extremely probable that whatever system is made use of, it will be called in question by some critics as not being in strict conformity with accepted rules. ”

“ A species ought to have a name so well known that the addition of the author’s name would be superfluous, and ... empty vanity.... Botany, I fancy, has not suffered so much as zoology from mere naming; the characters, fortunately, are more obscure.... Why should Naturalists append their own names to new species, when Mineralogists and chemists do not do so to new substances? ”

“ A Genus is a collection of species which resemble each other more than they resemble other species: the resemblance being opposed to a definite difference. (viii. 2.)
XCVIII.
The Nomenclature of a Classificatory Science is the collection of the names of the Species, Genera, and other divisions. The binary nomenclature, which denotes a species by the generic and specific name, is now commonly adopted in Natural History. (viii. 2.) ”

“ Such being the fundamental conception of zoology, it remained only for the investigator to study each individual species with an eye to its affinities with other species, that each might be assigned by a scientific classification to the particular place in the original scheme of creation which it was destined to occupy. Once such affinities had been correctly determined and interpreted for all species, the zoological classification would be complete for all time. ”

“ The general application of field experiment to evolution will render the current methods of recognizing species quite useless. It will become imperative to establish an experimental test for forms and species, and to 146apply this test critically to every “new species.” Descriptive botany, as practiced at present, will fall into disuse, as scientific standards come to prevail, and in its place will appear a real science of taxonomy. In the latter the criteria upon which species are based will be obtained solely by experiment. ”

“ For most of the groups of animals we have English names as well as Greek or Latin ones and when talking with an English-speaking person we can use these names. But when scientific men write of animals they use the names which have been agreed on by naturalists of all nationalities and which are understood by all of these naturalists. ”

“ Are not the sciences opposed? Is not natural history confined to organic bodies? Can mere chemical elements and their combinations be, with any propriety or consistency, arranged into Species, Genera, and Families? What is the principle on which genera and species depend? Do not Species imply Individuals? What is an Individual in the case of a chemical substance?
8. We thus find some of the widest and deepest questions of the philosophy of classification brought under our consideration when we would provide a method for the classification of minerals. ”

“ For the study of animals and plants had reached a standstill, a stagnation, for want of a proper concise method of naming the numerous species that were being made known, until the great Swede Linnæus, in the middle of the eighteenth century, by originating the modern method of naming plants and animals, indirectly made possible advance in agriculture as well as in biology. The more our knowledge advances the greater grows the need of accurate determinations of species. Without systematic describers of species agriculture would be a hopeless matter. ”