1896] THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPECIES-MAKING 459 
ology, and the like, not to taxonomy. At all events, it seems to 
be clear that the species-division will be useful in proportion as 
itis founded upon obvious and easily ascertained attributes. 
My own convictions respecting the art of species-making 
may be illustrated by a concrete example, which I have elsewhere 
published. 
“If this position is well taken, it follows that the naturalist should not 
describe new species with the idea of adding another item or organism to the 
inventory of nature, but for the purpose of classifying and clarifying our 
knowledge of the kind and extent of variation which the given group pre- 
sents. A new species, therefore, is made simply for convenience’s sake. In 
very variable groups it is perfectly justifiable to make species when it is 
known that occasional forms are intermediates, if thereby we are enabled to 
understand the relationships of the various forms more clearly. This is par- 
ticularly true in narrow groups which have many forms of varying taxonomic 
importance. An illustration may be taken from the genus Carex. The ech- 
inata group contains four more or less coordinate main types, the echinata 
Proper of the Old World, and three types in the United States. It has been 
the fashion to throw these all together into a composite species, calling it Carex 
echinata. In this arrangement, the subgroups or sub-forms do not stand out 
clearly, and it is impossible to contrast them forcibly. Moreover, the charac- 
ters which separate the most marked sub-forms are of as great or even greater 
classificatory importance than characters which are used to separate Carex 
«chinata itself from its fellow species. The old arrangement might be graphic- 
ally presented as follows : 
“Carex echinata. 
Group B 
Subgroup a. : 
“This classification, from a taxonomic standpoint, is untrue, for, as Carex 
*Pecies 80, groups B, C, D are coordinate with C. echinata, and wie subor- 
dinate to it. The mere fact that there are now and then intermediate forms 
tween these various groups should not deprive us of the privilege ‘a 
&xpressing the taxonomic facts. In nearly every instance specimens a: 
Clearly referred to one or the other of the groups by one who is familiar wit 
3 Survival of the Unlike, 134, 135. 
