CH. XX] THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 217 



cannot be composed of many true-breeding micro-species, but 

 that the formation of these must be later in the hfe of a species 

 than the formation of the species itself, and that it is after it is 

 formed that a species breaks up into micro-species, not that a 

 species is formed by the accumulation of micro-differences. This 

 agrees with what Bateson has said in his Presidential Address 

 (6); and simply expresses what has long been an axiom with 

 workers in ordinary systematic botany, that it is in large and 

 widely distributed species that much \ariation is found, '\vork- 

 ing in regions where most species actually occupy fairly large 

 areas, people have acquired an exaggerated opinion of the 

 variability of Linnean species, and unless it can be shown, by 

 genetic or other investigations, that local Linnean species, whicJi 

 exist in enormous numbers, especially in the south, are equally 

 variable, we must prefer to go upon the positi^•e facts shown 

 by Age and Area, confirmed as they are by the ordinary experi- 

 ence of every systematist. 



It has long been the fashion to sneer at the "mere systema- 

 tist," and to regard him simply as a useful hod-carrier for the 

 real work of Botany, and this especially since the incoming of 

 modern theories of evolution, of which, by a kind of instinct, he 

 has rarely been a supporter in any enthusiastic way — in itself 

 an offence to those who think that by this or that theory botany 

 will at last come to an end of its difficult and slow beginnings. 

 No great systematist has taken up, for example, the modern cult 

 that the only species that are species, and that are worth con- 

 sideration, are the minute varieties of Jordan and other writers. 

 It will be worth while, in this connection, to quote some of the 

 axioms of the great systematists, as they are in danger of being 

 forgotten in the enthusiasm for the study of micro-species. For 

 example, Darwin uses as headlines in the Origin of Species the 

 following, which have never been disputed. "Wide-ranging, 

 much diffused, and common species vary most." "Species of 

 the larger genera in each country vary more frequently than the 

 species of the smaller genera." "Many of the species included 

 Avithin the larger genera resemble varieties in being \ery closely, 

 but unequally, related to each other, and in ha\-ing restricted 

 ranges." 



From Hooker (55 a and b) I take (order in his sense is now 

 called family) "The varying species are relatively most numerous 

 in those classes, orders, and genera, which are the simplest in 

 structure." "As with species, so Avith genera and orders... upon 



