the New England Agrimonies • 103 



an improper plant description must ever be something indetermin- 

 able by exact rule — a mere academic problem obviously ever open 

 to the danger of receiving a solution far from the domain of practi- 

 cal ideas. As a matter of fact, a majority of accepted descriptions 

 will not survive a certain kind of impossible test. Suffice it, there- 

 fore, that the characterization of a species, if not wholly by itself, 

 then taken in connection with its context or other evidence, shall 

 fix beyond peradventure the identity of the plant intended. 



That this name hirsuta of Muhlenberg is unmistakable in its 

 application admits of not the slightest doubt. In advancing- a con- 



& uvwt v*w«^c o-x. uuri*..*,**^ 



trary view Dr. Robinson employs a kind of argument pitched 

 somewhere between sarcasm and ridicule, which only betrays the 

 weakness of his position, even apart from an unfairness of state- 

 ment evidently more a matter of haste than of intent. 



No one having given any close heed to our agrimonies can 

 doubt the exact application of Muhlenberg's name. The agrimo- 



M 



One other of 



our seven known North American species — a far southern plant 

 (A. incisa Gray) was wholly unknown to him ; so that the deter- 

 mination of what he meant by his hirsuta lies among three spe- 

 cies only instead of among seven, as Dr. Robinson declares. 

 The well-considered selection and often entire sufficiency for pur- 

 poses of identification of Muhlenberg's descriptive adjectives is 

 well evidenced in his "Catalogue," and it is not at all surpris- 

 Prising to find that his characterization of " rough-haired " for one 

 of his plants is entirely distinctive. The two eastern species not 

 recognized by Muhlenberg are upon a moment's consideration 

 Promptly excluded from being in any way involved ; one of them 



ia cmfh-U^iraA +tit-sMiryfi<->iit-' tlit* other (A. Brit' 



Britton) 



toniand) more or less so ; while the fact that the latter is partly 

 rough-haired has no bearing, since it is the most northern in range 

 of all our species, not extending south to Carolina, which is ex- 

 pressly named by Muhlenberg, and properly so, as the southern 

 limit of his hirsuta. The exact sufficiency and beautiful adequacy 

 °f Muhlenberg's characterization of rough-haired is thus apparent. 

 Dr. Robinson's objection that the plant in question is one of the 

 least « hairy " of the group is not at all to the point. Note that 



Muhlenhf^rrr c->,,o ~„,.~i. u~:..*j .,~«- i'^,rrLJif,irv an acute and \erv 



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