OF WASHINGTON. 39 



twig more definite than the branch. Species, genera, families, 

 are all parts of one great growth a growth that still is grow 

 ing, faster here, slower there. 



In fact, there is all manner and degree of isolation and rela 

 tion among species, some constant, some variable. The in 

 dividual is the only natural unit. 



Genera are broader views of species, clusters of leaves or 

 twigs. Based on unnatural species they are of course unnat 

 ural. In attempting to place the restless, developing mass of 

 insect life into the clothing of classification, sometimes the fam 

 ily will fit too tightly or the genus too loosely, and species here 

 are not coequal to species there. As we discern these misfits 

 it is natural that we try to adjust them. 



RESULTS OF GENOTYPE METHOD. 



It is evident that the more we study a species the more points 

 we find wherein it differs from its allies. And by fixing our 

 attention upon one species as an embodiment of the genus we 

 narrow our ideas of the genus the more we examine the species. 

 In our ardor to express these newly discovered differences we 

 create new genera. Thus the logical outcome of such a process 

 is that the genera become smaller and smaller, until the genus 

 is equal to the species, and we could conveniently abolish 

 genera. By applying to the subfamily and family in turn this 

 gradual restrictive process we could abolish these terms also, 

 and in time have nothing but species. 



Just as on a tree there are scarcely two twigs of exactly 

 the same size and shape, so there are scarcely two insects which 

 are separable from all others by the same sum total of differ 

 ences ; so that the term species may be also gradually restricted 

 until we reach the individual. Thus classification would work 

 its own destruction. 



Resting our ideas of the genus upon one species as the in 

 carnation of the genus means that we must continually modify 

 the generic characters, and continually narrow the limits of 

 the genus. No insect is as yet thoroughly known. Each new 

 student may read from the genotype new characters as generic. 

 Considering the genus as based on a type-species will result 



