CLASSIFICATION. 309 



different degrees. Thus a genus may consist of 

 several species which approach very near the type, and 

 of which the claim to a place with it is obvious ; while 

 there may be other species which straggle further from 

 this central knot, and which yet are clearly more con- 

 nected with it than with any other. And even if 

 there should be some species of which the place is 

 dubious, and which appear to be equally bound to two 

 generic types, it is easily seen that this would not 

 destroy the reality of the generic groups, any more 

 than the scattered trees of the intervening plain pre- 

 vent our speaking intelligibly of the distinct forests of 

 two separate hills. 



" The type-species of every genus, the type-genus 

 of every family, is, then, one which possesses all the 

 characters and properties of the genus in a marked 

 and prominent manner. The type of the Rose family 

 has alternate stipulate leaves, wants the albumen, has 

 the ovules not erect, has the stigmata simple, and 

 besides these features, which distinguish it from the 

 exceptions or varieties of its class, it has the features 

 which make it prominent in its class. It is one of 

 those which possess clearly several leading attributes ; 

 and thus, though we cannot say of any one genus that 

 it must be the type of the family, or of any one species 

 that it must be the type of the genus, we are still not 

 wholly to seek ; the type must be connected by many 

 affinities with most of the others of its group ; it must 

 be near the centre of the crowd, and not one of the 

 stragglers. " 



In this passage (the latter part of which especially 

 I cannot help noticing as an admirable example of 

 philosophic style.,) Mr. Whewell has stated very clearly 

 and forcibly, but (I think) without making all neces- 

 sary distinctions, one of the principles of a Natural 



