44 LIFE OF FLOWER 



proposed by Flower and almost everything in this 

 world is based more or less upon compromise from 

 the headstrong and radical mode of procedure fol- 

 lowed by some of the younger zoologists, remains to be 

 seen. 



Another subject on which Flower insisted very 

 strongly in the work under consideration was the 

 inadvisability of multiplying generic and family divi- 

 sions in zoology. Here again we may quote his own 

 words. 



" I do not mean," he writes, " that with the advance- 

 ment of knowledge improvements cannot be continually 

 made in the current arrangement of genera. The older 

 groups become so unwieldy by the discovery of new 

 species belonging to them that they must be broken up, 

 if only for the sake of convenience ; newly discovered 

 forms which cannot be placed in any of the established 

 genera must have new genera constituted for them, and 

 fuller knowledge of the structure of an animal may 

 necessitate its removal from one genus into another ; 

 all these are incidents in the legitimate progress of 

 science. Such alterations should, however, never be 

 made lightly and without a full sense of responsibility 

 for the difficulties which may be occasioned by them, 

 and which often can never be removed. Complete 

 agreement upon this subject can never be expected, as 

 the idea of a genus, of an assemblage of animals to which 

 a common generic name may be attached, cannot be 

 defined in words, and only exists in the imagination of 

 the different persons making use of the expression ; but 

 there might be no difficulty in coming to some general 

 agreement, if individual zoologists would look at the 



