president's address. 801 



Our zoological friends sometimes experience a similar difficulty, 

 a discussion having recently taken place at the Linnean Society 

 of London* in regard to the difficulties that present themselves 

 in defining and naming corals. 



In the matter of dealing with individual differences of forms, 

 Darwin may again be quoted : — 



"It should be remembered that systematists are far from being 

 pleased at finding variability in important characters. . . . 

 Authors sometimes argue in a circle when they state important 

 organs never vary; for these same authors practically rank those 

 parts as important (as some few naturalists have honestly con- 

 fessed) which do not vary." 



Dr. Robinsonf expresses a similar view indifferent language : — 

 "It is easy to see that species as now recorded in literature are 

 by no means alike, and that they cannot be regarded as equiva- 

 lents in any complete or logical system of classification. 

 Curiously enough the term " species " seems to be growing more 

 and more popular, as it means less and less. J: Often and on all 

 sides we hear lengthy arguments and emphatic asseverations to 

 the effect that this or that plant is a ' perfectly good species,' 

 and if in the course of monographic work a so-called species is 

 let down to varietal rank, it rarely fails to find somewhere its 

 ardent defenders, who appear to hold the curious view that the 

 monographer has not merely expressed a scientific opinion, but 

 has somehow perpetrated an injustice upon the plant or its 

 describer.'L 



It will soon be accepted as indisputable that " species must be 

 subjected to a gradual reclassification along more definite lines. . . 

 Each species must be examined in the light of vastly more 



* " On the necessity for a provisional nomenclature for those forms of life 

 which cannot be at once arranged in a natural system." By H. M. Bernard. 

 Abstract in Proceedings, Nov., 1900- June, 1901, p. 10. 



t Op. cit. 



X It will be'Jobserved for instance, in passing, that Mr. F. M. Bailey is 

 very sparing in the use of varieties, making his named forms species instead. 



