THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 17 



fined four of these terms that seem hkely to find a permanent 

 place in the literature of the subject. Genotype is defined as 

 "the fundamental hereditary constitution or combination of 

 genes of an organism" The gene, it will be noticed, is one of 

 the characters that go to make up the individual. A Biotypc 

 is a group of individuals possessing the same genotype. Pure 

 line denotes a group of individuals traceable solely through self- 

 fertilized lines to a single homozygous ancestor, while clone is 

 a group of individuals much like a pure line group except that 

 they are derived from a single genotype by asexual methods — 

 budding, slips, tubers and the like. 



Government Euphuism. — Let nobody suppose that 

 those dispensers of "Washington Science." are bound by the 

 hard and fast laws that govern scientific procedure in general. 

 When they have the inclination to let their fancies freely 

 range they can turn as pretty a phrase as could any lexico- 

 grapher after burning many gallons of the justly celebrated 

 midnight oil. Some time ago, desiring to separate one of their 

 number from the common herd of physiologists, the wights 

 in the gevernment service evolved the highly ornamental title 

 of Bionomist for him. Recently emboldened by this success 

 they have put over another much better one which shows how 

 very rapidly one improves with practice. This time the title 

 is that of Xylotomist. It is evident that xylotomists are not 

 common in captivity for the fact that the Forest Service needs 

 a few at $1000 each has been mentioned in the newspapers. 

 So far as we can ascertain xylotomist is Greek for wood cut- 

 ter — or used to be when we were studying for the ministry. 

 Now that severing old ties with a dull axe has risen to the dig- 

 nity of a learned profession with an ornamental cognomen, it is 

 barely possible that the wandering gentlemen of leisure may 

 view the woodpile with a more kindly eye. What does the 

 Government want of Xylotomists ? To cut the dead wood out 

 of the official force, of course! Any old laborer can cut real 

 wood. 



