158 Outlook to Nature 



in the strawberry has occurred with many other 

 plants under cultivation. 



Species-making in practice. 



All this means that species may not, in prac- 

 tice, be founded on essential or intrinsic charac- 

 ters, but that the word is applied to any group 

 of animals or plants which is so distinct from 

 other groups that a name may be given it for 

 convenience' sake. The name makes it possible 

 for us to write and talk about the objects, but 

 the name, as used at present, has no other 

 value. 



And it indicates how personal a thing a 

 species is, how much it is a matter of judgment 

 of the man who makes it. Regel thinks that 

 there are but two species of grapes in the north- 

 ern hemisphere, whereas Munson contends that 

 there are twenty-five species in the United 

 States alone. Now, the grapes are the same 

 whether seen by Regel or Munson ; but Regel 

 is not Munson. In other words, species may 

 be matters of opinion, rather than matters of 

 fact. 



