52 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 289. 



originally given to theili. This, of course, is 

 particularly true of groups in which speci- 

 mens are made with difficulty or are easily 

 destroyed, and, as Avith Myxomycetes, it 

 sometimes becomes almost or quite impos- 

 sible to go further back in the application 

 of names than some comparatively recent 

 monographer's collections. A growing dis- 

 position is noticeable to subject what may 

 be considered type specimens to more 

 restricted use than was prevalent even a 

 few years ago, and it is easy to see that 

 with the daily increasing minuteness of 

 classification, such preservative restrictions 

 are likely to increase rather than diminish 

 as time goes on. In some of the larger 

 collections, the type material is already 

 being removed from the general collections, 

 and type collections are being formed. I 

 have no doubt that a clear recognition of 

 the meaning and importance of types, co- 

 types, topotypes, etc., as contrasted with 

 ordinary specimens, will ultimately lead to 

 the general adoption of this practice and to 

 a prohibition of the mutilation of such 

 specimens, even for purposes of minute 

 study, as complete, if not as sensational, as 

 that which the sealing of the cases contain- 

 ing Eeichenbach's orchid types for a quarter 

 of a century has effected in that family, 

 possibly to the ultimate benefit of science, 

 but certainly to the impairment of the work 

 of to-day. What are to be regarded as 

 types, cotypes and the like, for species, it is 

 not difficult to see in most cases. A more 

 debatable question, which indeed affects all 

 the groups of plants superior to species, 

 in which are to be expected ultimate up- 

 heavals quite as far reaching as those which 

 we see to-day in the lower groups, is that 

 referring to the types of genera and still 

 higher groups. This may form the subject 

 of a committee report at this meeting, and 

 it is to be hoped that conservative and sound 

 but far reaching and uniform action may 

 be secured through the efforts of this com- 



mittee of the Botanical Club, and of the 

 Section. 



In the vice-presidential address before 

 this Section a year ago. Professor Barnes, 

 speaking from the point of view of the 

 physiologist, who often finds plants of very 

 diverse physiological behavior pertaining to 

 one species of the taxonomist, expressed 

 the belief that the plasticity of plants, con- 

 cerning which much has been learned in re- 

 cent years, is really so great that it is 

 almost impossible, for physiological pur- 

 poses, to group together any individuals ex- 

 cept those growing under identical condi- 

 tions; and he hazards the suggestion that the 

 present method of naming plants binomially 

 as species must sooner or later give place to 

 some other and radically different method. 



The dependence of the morphologist and 

 physiologist upon the taxonomist is indeed 

 quite as great as that of the student of 

 geographical distribution and the cultivator 

 of plants, and any classification and nomen- 

 clature which are to persist as of permanent 

 value must of necessity be alike useful to 

 all who are interested in plants, from what- 

 ever point of view. Whatever value the 

 studies of morphologists and physiologists 

 possess to-day comes from co-ordination and 

 generalization in the light of the existing 

 classification of plants, and the future 

 development of these studies is most in- 

 timately connected with the evolution of a 

 system of classifying and naming plants 

 which shall at once permit of the ready 

 determination and intelligible designation 

 of any desired group of comparable plants, 

 — a result that alone can avert the very 

 possible danger of a scattering of energy in 

 the accumulation of information concerning 

 untold myriads of individuals, the peculiar- 

 ities of which, however much they may in- 

 terest and occupy the student, can scarcely 

 enter into science until co-ordinated and 

 generalized on rational and reasonably per- 

 manent lines intelligible to all botanists. 



