ON THE "species" QUESTION AS KEGAUDS KUBIIS. 3 



chaos which the names dumdorum, nemorosus ferox, Scldcichei'i, di- 

 ver aifol ins, call up to the student of Brambles ? Not caesiau truly 

 these ; but where is the line of separation to fall, — to say nothing 

 of R. Balfourianus, Blox., R. degener, Miill, as understood by Ge- 

 nevier, and a host more of Continental forms, which connect our 

 lately isolated ccesi/is, even with some strange corylifolian-looking 

 things. 



Enough of illustration. Tiie whole question, we are inclined to 

 think, is merely a verbal one, between any two Rubiologists, assuming 

 to each an equally wide knowledge of growing plants. We can't do 

 without the name " species ;" and we must faggot our E,ubi forms into 

 bundles somehow. Some, to adopt metaphor, may be bundles of long 

 sticks, and some of short sticks, some of green sticks, some of dry. 

 It is an excellent arrangement, tliat sticks of one length, and so forth, 

 should be tied together, and sticks of another length separated from 

 them. Only don't forget one thing, that toe have sorted the sticks for 

 our convenience, and that the short stick and the long may have been 

 originally chopped from a common log of timber. And do not sup- 

 pose that this illustration is intended to throw slight on the observa- 

 tion of the minutest structural differences, whether in Rubi forms or 

 elsewhere in the vast range of physical observation. On the contrary, 

 we say, if appreciable difference exist, catalogue and desciibe it by all 

 means. I take it we shall be nearer the physical fact, if we, even 

 ultimately, run up our native English Rubi forms (not species, mind, or 

 even subspecies) into two hundred, as our neighbours have done theirs 

 in one river basin, than we are witii our present some half-hundred 

 recognized " species " of such diverse equivalent values. Let us 

 arrange more in groups and forms. Let us be more Benthamian in 

 our group, more Jordanic in our forms, or if you choose " subspecies." 

 Let us make the practical test of a form difference, as opposed to a 

 mere catalogue of indi\^luals, the occurrence of a structural difteretice 

 sufficient to admit of its being formulated with tolerable precision, 

 and likely to allow of recognition by an experience as trained as its 

 describer's. No one knows, till the attempt is made, what progress 

 can be expected, how difficult groups almost settle themselves, with 

 time, patience, and continuous observation of independent minds. If 

 the protean forms of Polygonum uvicidare are beginning to shake into 

 order, no observer of liubi need desist, for the advice so readily be- 



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