HAMIIvTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 147 



difference iu mere outward forms, or even in internal ones, 

 more rarely noticed, pointed to distinct species, we have 

 here in our local glaciated Niagara Chert beds such a number 

 of tliese ancient vSilurian organic remains that they well may 

 attract scientific investigation outside their restricted locality. 

 While the writer has not the slightest claim to be recognized 

 as a Palaeontologist, he may be excused for ignorantly 

 supposing that these varieties are frequently classified as 

 distinct species. This view may be considered quite erroneous, 

 but I would respectfully call attention to what I find recorded 

 recently in the address of the retiring President of the 

 British Association for the advancement of science, Professor 

 E. Ray Lankester, Director of the Natural History Depart- 

 ment of the British Museum : 



"The observation of ' de Vries,' showing that in 

 cultivated varieties of plants a new form will sometimes assert 

 itself suddenly and attain a certain period of dominance, 

 though not having been gradually brought into existence by a 

 slow process of selection, have been considered by him and by 

 a good many other naturalists as indicating the way in which 

 new species arise introduced in Nature. The suggestion is a 

 valuable one, if not very novel, but a great deal of observation 

 will have to be made before it can be admitted as really having 

 a wide bearing upon the oyigin of species. The same is true of 

 those interesting observations which were first made by 

 ' Mendel,' and have been resuscitated and extended with 

 great labor and ingenuity b\' recent workers, especially' in 

 this country by Bateson and his pupils." 



Whatever may be stated either for or against the theory 

 in question, regarding variety or distinct species, maybe left 

 to the most competent men for an ultimate decision, 

 the Professional Palaeontologists. Years may elapse before 

 any satisfactory decision is reached on the subject. In the 

 meantime it is absolutely necessary to recognize what 

 Scientific Geologists in all civilized countries have established, 

 the recognition of what is known ait; "family species." 

 Assuredly any catalogue which would merely substitute 



