OF WASHINGTON. 345 



The paper was discussed by Messrs. Hopkins, Cook, and Gill. 



Mr. Cook discussed briefly some of the general principles in 

 classification, referring to the fallacy of speaking of the value of 

 characters. The characters which we may observe are simply 

 aids in classification. We will find species varying in certain 

 respects, and there may be a chain of such variations, but Mr. 

 Ashmead, in puzzling over the relative value of variations, has 

 unnecessarily troubled himself. 



Dr. Gill referred to the evolution of genus-making. Linnaeus, 

 he said, was a good botanist but a poor zoologist, and it was un 

 fortunate for zoology that the work of Linnaeus for so many years 

 had such a vogue and was considered so important. He dis 

 cussed the progress of the subdivision of the Linnaean genera in 

 different groups, stating that in zoology, as a whole, we are still 

 in the analytical stage of development. Thirty years ago he 

 himself was considered an iconoclastic outcast by other workers 

 in fishes, but at the present time all of his genera are accepted 

 and he finds himself in the majority. He bade Mr. Ashmead to 

 go ahead and to trust in the future for the substantiation of his 

 divisional work. This future, he thought, would be near, as the 

 tendency of the times is in this direction. He further spoke of 

 the method of delimiting the type species of the Fabrician genus 

 Crabro. 



