January 27, 1909 103 
Ecads, or forms arising from adaptation may be designated 
“scias, helias, xeras and hydras, denoting respectively shade 
form, sun form, dry form, and wet form.” 
“Until more is known of variants, it is proposed to desig- 
nate them by a brief and applicable trinomial term, e. g., Gal- 
tum boreale exiguum.” 
He thinks “that it will prove difficult, if not impossible to 
improve upon the conventional method of designating hybrids, 
viz., Galium boreale x trifidum.” 
“In our present knowledge of mutants, it seems impossible 
to take the cause into account. The suggestion is accordingly 
made that the mutant be named with reference to its most strik- 
ing characteristic, the trinomial to bear the prefix fer, very, re- 
ferring to the saltatory nature of mutation, and thus denoting 
the method of origin.” 
He gives the following examples in order to illustrate this 
scheme: 
Cerastium strictum scias: ecad. 
Verbena stricta x hastata: hybrid. 
Aquilegia coerulea peralba: mutant. 
Machaeranthera viscosa aspera: variant. 
“In concluding, the exologist will confess frankly that he 
does not know what a species is. On the other hand, he is cer- 
tain that he knows some of the things it is not, and that the 
species of the descriptive botanist comprise several widely dif- 
ferent things. . . The question of what a species is can not 
even be answered provisionally until a sufficiently large num- 
ber of experiments have been made to indicate the regular pro- 
cedure in the origin of plant forms and to reveal the principles 
that control it.” 
Dr. Cowles says that “it is coming to be realized that the 
problems of physiology and ecology are essentially identical, not 
alone in the matter of the species concept, but in all respects. 
The method of approach has differed with the point of 
