48 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Feb., '2O 



Since submitting the present paper for publication, an ar- 

 ticle on "Criteria for the Recognition of Species and Genera" 

 by Dr. C. Hart Merriam* has appeared. In it the author 

 says: "To my mind, the criterion of inter gradation -is one of 

 the most pernicious that has ever been introduced into the 

 systematic study of animals and plants" (p. 7) ; and he asks: 

 "If species and genera *** are to be set aside because of the 

 discovery of intermediate forms does it not follow that sooner 

 or later our classification is doomed to destruction, chaos tak- 

 ing the place of system?" (p. 9). If I have properly gath- 

 ered the message of Dr. Merriam's paper as a whole, it is, 

 that since classification is an essentially arbitrary thing, it 

 may as well be arbitrary throughout, including its principles 

 and practices. We may all agree, or it would appear that we 

 should be able to agree, that scientific classification is arbi- 

 trary, in that it consists of organized concepts, and that the 

 concepts must have a certain definiteness. We may go fur- 

 ther and say with respect to the systematist, that to avoid 

 setting too high a value, upon the characters of taxonomic 

 groups, and to escape mistaking conceptions for realities, he 

 must ever keep in mind that systems are essentially arbitrary 

 or artificial. At the same time, paradoxical though it may 

 seem, he must shun artificiality. It hardly requires stating 

 that the more highly artificial (arbitrary) is the classification 

 of any group the less satisfactory. A system which merely 

 pigeon-holes specimens without taking into account their 

 fundamental relationships and probable lines of evolution, 

 is not a worthy contribution to modern taxonomy. An at- 

 tempt must be made to reflect nature and this can be done 

 only by full recognition of the facts of organic evolution, 

 among which, one almost omnipresent, is intergradation, or 

 if that term seems to exclude hybridism from a possible share 

 in the intricacies of relationships, we may use the phrase ap- 

 proximating variations, of related groups. 



But it is certainly unreasonable to apprehend that such re- 

 cognition involves the end of everything like our present sys- 



*Journ. of Mammalogy, Vol. i, No. I, Nov. 1919, pp. 6-9 



