466 ON SPECIES 



were species that it could be cynically said by one of the older 

 school that a species was anything that had received a specific 

 name. Hence; in the botanist's phrase, it was better to reduce 

 one bad species than to make a score of new ones. 



The sense of this was strong upon Hooker even in his 

 student days, the days of botanical tramps through the British 

 Isles ; as he writes to Harvey in 1845 about a much disputed 

 variety of heath found in Ireland and in Spain : 



Erica McKayi I never thought distinct from tetralix 

 and have many dried intermediate states. Many a battle 

 I had with Balfour in Connemara on the subject ; he would 

 never own it a variety, even when I showed him living 

 specimens. I did not and do not give in to Bentham's 

 verdict, as he knows well, who retains the species in con- 

 sideration of the glabrous ovarium. 



This view of species was only accentuated with time. The 

 more material he worked over, the greater the amount of 

 variability found. Conversely, to establish the limits of a 

 species properly, required the examination of a vast amount 

 of material. As he begins the Indian Flora with T. Thomson, 

 where his aim is ' to introduce some order into the confused 

 mass of bad genera/ he tells Bentham (October 15, 1852) : 



Except for an enormous mass of species and specimens 

 it would be impossible to come to a right conclusion as to 

 their limits, yet the species are very distinct indeed when 

 species, however close they run to one another ; it is very 

 pretty to see different species running into analogous varieties 

 and yet holding their characters. 



So he gets ready for Col. Munro, the authority on grasses, 

 ' a huge collection of duplicates, which will be absolutely 

 essential in working up such genera as Arundinellai' (1853.) 



It is the same with the Laurels : 



Nees has certainly overdone the species greatly, but that 

 is not to be wondered at, or visited severely, as it is impossible 

 to do them satisfactorily without flowers, fruits, and leaves, 

 and a host of specimens. (To Bentham, September 3, 1854.) 



