1919] Fernald,— Ranges of Pinus and Thuja 67 
Though, as just said, the law itself is “as old as the hills,” the recog- 
nition of it, naturally, is much more recent. Nevertheless it was 
clearly comprehended by the ancient Greeks. Here are the words 
of Theophrastus, written about 300 B. C.: “Yet it is not strange that 
there should be some mountains which do not thus bear all things, 
but have a more special kind of vegetation to a great extent if not 
entirely: for instance the range of Ida in Crete, for there Cupressus 
grows; or the hills of Cilicia and Syria, on which Cedrus grows; or 
certain parts of Syria where the terebinth grows. For it is the differ- 
ences of soil which give a special character to the vegetation.” ! 
Cowles, who has found it necessary elsewhere to explain that he is 
one of “those of broader viewpoint,” says that “The world of mor- 
phologists, physiologists and ecologists has borne with” the sinning 
taxonomist “patiently and long . . . a little more and the sinning 
taxonomist will be 'cast out into the outer darkness where there shall 
be wailing and gnashing of teeth," 2 but he says nothing about our 
toleration of the sinning ecologist? Two of the great truths of science 
taught by the ancient Greeks, and just as true now as prior to the 
Christian era, were (1) that “it is the differences of soil which give a 
special character to the vegetation"; and (2) that the earth is round. 
In these days anyone who seriously argues that the earth is flat is 
treated as a pitiable eccentric or is kept in confinement. 
Gray HERBARIUM. 
1 Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. lib. iii. cap. 3 (circ. 300 B. C.). 
? Cowles, Am. Nat. xlii. 270, 271 (1908). 
! Everyone, however, will agree with Cowles when in the same paragraph he says: "Species- 
making by taxonomic tyros must be abandoned"; but it is certainly diverting, that on the 
preceding page Cowles tried his hand at a most difficult genus and published two brand-new 
combinations, '' Crataegus mollis ellwangeriana” and “C. mollis champlainensis," although in 
doing so he violated three of the articles of the International Code, which in a preceding para- 
graph he seems to defend: publishing without an adequate bibliographic reference to the 
name-bringing synonym; making trinomials, without indicating the category (whether sub- 
species, variety, or form); and decapitalizing a personal name, Ellwangeriana. Naturally, 
if this represents an ecologist's conception of taxonomic work it is not surprising that Cowles 
should condemn the “‘sinning”’ taxoncmist. 
