30 MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. 



enunciated, the awe-stricken recipient retires, feeling 

 profoundly edified, and credits his informer with having 

 fulfilled the function of a great naturalist. This mis- 

 chievous delusion is too often encouraged by those who 

 are able and willing to impose upon it, or who have not 

 the courage to follow the injunction so often given by 

 Professor Agassiz at Penikese, — " Learn to say you do 

 not know." 



Pitiable as is this fear of appearing ignorant, and des- 

 picable as is the impostor's pretence of knowledge, 

 there is no ground in either for prejudice against sys- 

 tematic names. 



Whoever reflects on what the binary nomenclature, 

 introduced by Linne, has done for zoology and botany, 

 will scarcely need to be told that no misuses, excesses, 

 or abuses to which systematic work is liable, can detract 

 from its importance. Indeed, it may be said that time 

 will increase rather than diminish the value of such 

 work. Thirty years ago our systematic names stood for 

 differences and resemblances, the deeper significance of 

 which had only been caught by Darwin and Wallace. 

 The idea of the genetic unity of the organic world 

 set the whole field of systematic work in a blaze of 

 light, imparting to it an interest and a dignity of the 

 highest order. 



The second important function of systematic biology 

 is to arrange its forms in a genealogical system. But 

 for the fulfilment of this function, systematic biology 

 requires the aid of all the sister branches of knowledge, 

 and in return renders the important service of recording 

 their verdicts along with its own. The record, represent- 

 ing as nearly as possible the consensus of all the mor- 



