species, Subspecies and Varieties. 169 



ment and observation. We must deal not with the origin 

 of the groups made by the systematist but with those 

 which are presented by nature. 



There is no question that these elementary species 

 often do arise in the garden and in agricultural practice. 

 But in the first place they are only noticed when they 

 have become established and when therefore the chance 

 of observing the mode of their origin is irrevocably lost. 

 And in the second place we smooth the matter over by 

 calling the new forms "Varieties." 



What are varieties? In wild plants they are usually 

 very different from what they are in cultivated ones. 

 Or rather the term variety has a number of definitions 

 none of which is definite enough. In the eyes of those 

 who perhaps unconsciously were anxious to maintain the 

 supernatural value of species — and there are many of 

 them even now — all forms, not the result of crossing, 

 the history of whose origin is more or less accurately 

 known, are called "varieties," Thus, all elementary spe- 

 cies arising under cultivation fall into this category. 

 Gardeners as a rule often draw no distinction between 

 "varieties" and "kinds" on the one hand and between 

 these and species and hybrids on the other. 



The description of all forms with whose origin we 

 are familiar, as varieties, opens the door to endless misuse 

 of the term. On this ground alone therefore it ought to 

 be given up. Even some of the best known authors of 

 pre-Darwinian days thought that they could prove the 

 common origin of a group of species by describing them 

 as varieties of a species of a higher order. In this way 

 Naudin for example, according to Wallace, "proved" 

 that the thirty species of melons, which had been recog- 



