viii PREFACE 



ship to art is obvious in many of its aspects, 

 not least so in its bearing towards truth. The 

 flamboyant manner in which Napoleon crosses 

 the Alps on canvas is not farther from the 

 truth than many a morphological theory which 

 has received the last touches of a master hand. 

 Yet the theory and the picture though wrong 

 are presumably good, that is to say, the technique 

 is competent, and the moment selected for inter- 

 pretation and presentation interesting; and if 

 there is a preference it must be for the picture 

 which makes no pretension to scientific accuracy. 



Beyond a certain point morphology becomes 

 an art, and as such its scope is infinite ; as an 

 expression of simple truth its horizon is strictly 

 limited, and consequently there have not been 

 wanting those who have depreciated its value, 

 perhaps through forgetfulness of the fact that 

 the complexity of biological questions is rarely 

 realised even by specialists, because the origins 

 of morphological types are rooted in remote 

 and intangible obscurity. It should be added 

 that my remarks refer almost exclusively to 

 the zoological side of morphology, although 

 many of the principles involved apply with 

 equal, if not with greater force to its botanical 

 aspect. 



The history of zoological classification since 



