40 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Februan* 



has reached a point where the ordinarj' morphological charac- 

 ters no longer suffice to classify what we know or wish to know 

 about the plants themselves." *'We also feel warranted in 

 believing that hereafter physiological characters will assume 

 even a greater importance than at present in the characteriz- 

 ation of species." 



Anyone who is familiar with the systematic literature of 

 botany knows how" difficult it is to distinguish species eveii 

 among the higher forms of plants on morphological grounds 

 alone. The a arieties of one botanist are apt to become the 

 species of another ; Avhile both species and genera are trans- 

 ferred back and forth in a mo^t astonishing manner.- Dr. 

 dray once expressed the opinion that not more than one-third 

 of the described species of oak were valid, and in one of his 

 letters writes that the asters threatened to reduce him to 

 blank despair. A well known authority in reviewing a recent 

 work on grasses declares that six or eight good and valid spe- 

 cies have been compressed into a single polymorphous one. 

 The fact is that if minute differences were to be noted ever\- 

 plant would represent a species. Something like this seems 

 really to have happened in the case of the genus Sphagnum in 

 regard to which a European bryologist remarks, SU hreriva 

 dictum] " Tot specimina, quot nomina.'' 



MiscoPHiNUS OR Hypojiiscophus?— It turns out that Mucophinxx 

 Ashm., Entomological News, October, 1898, is identical with 

 HypomiscopMis, CkW.^ ±S.n\i. Mag. Nat. Hist., October, 1898. Dr. 

 Skinner cannot find out iust when the October Entomological 

 News appeared, but le states that it " is usually mailed on or before 

 the last day of each month." Messrs. Taylor and Francis inform 

 me that the October Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist, was issued to the 

 public on September 30th, at 8.30 a. m.. which would be about ;.30 

 a. m. in Philadelphia. Such are the facts, and they leavens still in 

 uncertainty. Unless more light is forthcoming, I am inclined to 

 favor the use of Miscophinvs, as Ash mead described three species 

 under it, while my Hypomiscophvs was based on a single species.— 



T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



P. S. — Mr. Ashmead kindly informs ni3 that his copy of Entomo- 

 logical News containing Jlt'scopJiimis was received on the morn- 

 ing of the first of the munth, and he read it at the breakfast table. 

 It must therefore have been mailed on September 30th, and owing 

 to the diflfei-ence of longitude, the London publication has priority 

 of several hours.— T. D. A. C. 



