4 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 
But in Kosa this is not the case. The species are represented 
in herbaria by fragments only, either in flower or in fruit, from 
which one cannot always obtain all the factors for a just concep- 
tion. If it had been possible to represent the roses in collec- 
tions, as has been the case with herbaceous plants, by entire 
individuals, that is to say by bushes, the recognition of the 
species would not be inso great uncertainty. To the difficulties 
resulting from insufficiency of material there are added those 
which the species makers have accumulated, the ‘counters of 
hairs,” as they are sometimes called, who have multiplied specific 
types in a needless fashion. 
It is to warn my American confréres against the breaking up 
of species, and to show them how careful one must be before 
proposing a new type, that I intend to submit to them some 
considerations based upon long experience, taking up especially 
species of the section CINNAMOME#, 
Each species may present itself in three conditions of vege- 
tation: an habitual state, which may be called the medium, a 
dwarf state, and a giant state. It is from the medium state, that 
is, the most frequent one, that the description of the type is 
usually drawn. The distinctive characters furnished by this 
state are put in relief in the diagnoses. The dwarf and giant 
states, however, present certain characters which do not corres- 
pond to these diagnoses, and lead to an inference of the exist- 
ence of specific forms distinct from those described. This has 
frequently occurred. The dwarfing or the enlargement in the — 
genus Xosa affects the form of the prickles, the dimensions of the 
leaves, of the flowers, of the fruits, etc.; affecting not only the 
ensemble of a bush, but also different parts of the same bush. 
Thus a delicate or more or less exhausted axis may give rise to 
puny floriferous branches with small leaflets and single-flowered 
inflorescences ; while a vigorous axis may give rise to floriferous 
branches with large leaflets and many-flowered inflorescences. 
These two kinds of branches, if they be isolated, appear very 
different from each other, and may give rise to the idea of two’ 
varieties or even of two species. It is the dwarfing or enlarge- 
