54: Elementary Species 



In the same manner bluebells vary in the size 

 and shape of the corolla, which may be wide or 

 narrow, bell-shaped or conical, with the tips 

 turned downwards, sidewards or backwards. 



As a rule all of the more striking elementary 

 types have been described by local botanists 

 under distinct specific names, while they are 

 thrown together into the larger systematic spe- 

 cies by other authors, who study the distribu- 

 tion of plants over larger portions of the 

 world. Everything depends on the point of 

 view taken. Large floras require large species. 

 But the study of local floras yields the best re- 

 sults if the many forms of the region are distin- 

 guished and described as completely as possible. 

 And the easiest way is to give to each of them a 

 specific name. If two or more elementary spe- 

 cies are united in the same district, they are 

 often treated in this way, but if each region had 

 its own type of some given species, commonly 

 the part is taken for the whole, and the sundry 

 forms are described under the same name, with- 

 out further distinctions. 



Of course these questions are all of a practical 

 and conventional nature, but involve the differ- 

 ent methods in which different authors deal 

 with the same general fact. The fact is that 

 systematic species are compound groups, ex- 

 actly like the genera and that their real units 



