July 13, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



51 



create equally distinct species or races is 

 on the other. 



There are several ways in which these ad- 

 missions may affect our judgment and ac- 

 tions. Kecognition of measurable parallel- 

 ism between the operations of nature and 

 of the gardener goes far toward removing a 

 sentimental objection to considering as 

 species the forms which the latter brings 

 into being, but the treatment of both nat- 

 ural and garden forms on a uniform basis 

 is likely to modify the extreme treatment 

 which would otherwise be accorded to either- 

 The garden forms of a given type of plant 

 are often so numerous and so freely sub- 

 divisible as to threaten, when this is carried 

 out, either a very undesirable polynomial 

 nomenclature or, what is worse, the multi- 

 plication of barely separable genera, in 

 order that the facts may be fully expressed. 

 It is evident that too great a multiplication 

 of genera can but result in unwieldy com- 

 plexity of system, and it is equally evident 

 that, the ultimate purpose of the systemat- 

 ist being to classify and describe for others 

 the plants which actually exist — whether 

 in the woods or the garden — he must not 

 be content ■v^ith distinguishing between the 

 more easily separated only, but must pro- 

 vide for all of the forms which either the bot- 

 anist or the gardener or the user of plants 

 for manufacturing and other purposes needs 

 the means of separating. 



We are living through a transition period 

 in our science, and should not close our 

 eyes to the practical meaning of the changes 

 in our beliefs. We are carrying on a move- 

 ment for so classifying all groups of plants 

 as to indicate their phylogeny by their po- 

 sition — or, otherwise stated, we are con- 

 tinuing the effort of our predecessors to 

 secure a natural system based on real affin- 

 ity rather than superficial resemblance — 

 ■ and at the same time we are beginning to 

 recognize that the groups of individuals 

 that we call species are of every-day value 



only in proportion to their simplicity and 

 definability. Two years ago Dr. Farlow 

 made a strong statement of the necessary 

 utilitarian trend of the present attitude with 

 respect to species. My own belief is that 

 this will very shortly become a principal 

 guiding thought in the work of all describ- 

 ers of plants, and that the old idea of some- 

 thing distinct in nature between the con- 

 cepts of a species and a variety, which has 

 suffered greatly in the changes that have 

 ah-eady come about but is still leading to 

 diverse practices, will be eliminated as a 

 factor of any importance. 



In the address referred to, Dr. Farlow 

 likened the efforts of the descriptive botan- 

 ist to those of the happy possessor of a ko- 

 dak — snap-shotting the ever changing pro- 

 cession of nature. It is evident that if the 

 facts shown have changed before the picture 

 is developed, the latter can be of value for 

 comparison and as a record of change only ; 

 but, fully as we may believe now in the 

 changeableness of species, I think that most 

 of us are convinced from our own experi- 

 ence that the span of human life is rela- 

 tively short enough to prevent discourage- 

 ment of the best work of which the 

 taxonomist is capable, if, as we are more 

 and more coming to believe necessary, it be 

 conformed to utility as its first purpose — a 

 purpose not at all inconsistent with phylo- 

 genetic expression. 



One of the questions of daily growing 

 interest and importance is that of the au- 

 thentication and preservation of type ma- 

 terial in descriptive natural history. It is 

 probably and unfortunately true that many 

 more species have been described originally 

 from fragmentary and imperfect material 

 than from adequate specimens, and it some- 

 times happens that the material of to-day 

 makes possible a very satisfactory synopsis 

 of a genus or family, although the greatest 

 difficulty is encountered in attaching to the 

 different species the names which were 



