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DEFINITION 3. A VAKIETY is a group of plants subordinate 



to a species. The differences between any two varieties 



{ of the same species are not constant, i.e. they are not 



always transmitted unchanged from the parent to the 



majority of its immediate offspring. 



DEFINITION 4. A RACE is a variety of considerable fixity. 

 The characters distinguishing the individuals which 

 compose it from those constituting the rest of the 

 species are frequently (e.g. in certain localities or 

 under certain conditions of existence), but not always, 

 transmitted from the parent to the majority of its 

 immediate offspring. 



DEFINITION 5. A number of species which closely resem- 

 ble one another with respect to their important 

 morphological characters are combined into a higher 

 group termed a GENUS. 



Every species in the same genus bears the same name, Nomencla- 

 known as the generic name, while, to distinguish the various ture - 

 species included in a genus, each one is given an additional 

 name known as the specific name. The name of every species, 

 therefore, consists of two words. Thus all plants belonging to 

 the oak genus bear the common generic name of Quercus, 

 while the various species are distinguished by their specific 

 names, thus we have Quercus incana, Quercus glauca, and so 

 on. The same specific name cannot be used for more than one 

 species in the same genus, but may, of course, be used in another 

 genus. 



In the majority of modern Floras no distinction is drawn 

 between sub-species, races and varieties, all sub-divisions of 

 the species being indiscriminately termed varieties. Of such 

 varieties those which are held to be most important are 

 given separate names, the varietal name following the specific 

 name, thus Cedrus Libani var. Deodara. Unimportant varieties 

 are merely noted below the description of the species in which 

 they are included and are designated by numbers or letters. 

 As different botanists have sometimes given different names 

 to one and the same plant and as different plants have some- 

 times received the same name, it is necessary, in order to avoid 

 confusion, to write after the name of the plant the name, in 

 full or abbreviated, of the author who first gave it that name : 

 thus Rhus Wallichii Hook f. means that J. D. Hooker was the 

 botanist who first gave the plant this name. A name of a 

 plant which has been superseded by another, owing to 

 its having been considered incorrect for some reason, is 



