744 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1883, 



H. was so good as to write me a charming letter 

 from her new home, for which please give her my 

 thanks. 



By the way, if you see our observatory director, 

 Pickering, you will find him an unaffected man, wise 

 in science above his years. 



TO J. D. HOOKER. 



CAMBRIDGE, September 3, 1883. 



MY DEAR HOOKER, A letter of yours of July 

 24 has been on my table a good while, and now to- 

 day comes yours of August 22. So I am to write 

 you at once, urged thereto mainly by your quandary 

 about subspecies, varieties, and how to manage them in 

 a popular flora like the British, in which forms need 

 to be distinguished more than in outlandish floras. 



I have a decided opinion as to the form of treat- 

 ment, and from your letter, as well as I can gather, I 

 coincide with Ball. At least, I would not have sub- 

 species. They are, as the saying goes, " neither flesh, 

 fowl, nor good red herring." 



Some you would accept as species ; make of the 

 rest varieties, with names. 



In characterizing species having marked varieties, 

 should the specific character comprehend the forms or 

 varieties, and then there be a " var. a " or type, or 

 " typical form ? " 



I thought over this when I began my " Synoptical 

 Flora," and concluded that it was best to characterize 

 the species on its genuine representatives only. Of 

 course as far as practicable, and indeed for all but 

 some special points, the characters will, and should, 

 cover the whole. And at the end of the character, you 

 have only to add, the type of the species has so and 



