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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 196. 



characters whicli they use to distinguish 

 species as more important than those 

 ■which they are willing to accept as merely 

 racial. 



But what is more important or less im- 

 portant is a question not only of individual 

 opinion at any given time, but it is also a 

 question which depends on the means of 

 analysis at our disposal, and these change 

 from time to time. Surely there never lived 

 a better systematist than Elias Fries, and, 

 at the time of its publication in 1821-1832, 

 his Systema Mycologicum was certainly a 

 masterpiece. If the species described by 

 him in genera, such as Sphseria, for example, 

 which were then considered valid, are no 

 longer recognized as such, it is not because 

 in limiting his species as he did Fries did 

 not employ with remarkable skill the same 

 scientific principles of classification as the 

 mycologists of to- day, but mainly because 

 the modern application of the microscope 

 to the study of the spores and some other 

 characters has brought out facts unknown 

 in the beginning of the century. The spe- 

 cies of Fries have been split up and 

 changed in many respects, and while we 

 feel sure that the modern classification) 

 thanks to improved microscopes, is an im" 

 provement on his, who shall dare say that 

 hereafter some at present unknown and un- 

 suspected method of analysis may not fur- 

 nish facts which will overturn our present 

 system ? 



I should feel that I ought to apologize for 

 bringing up a siibject so very, very thread- 

 bare, were it not that some botanists shrink 

 from acknowledging the fact that what we 

 botanists call species are really arbitrary 

 and artificial creations to aid us in classify- 

 ing certain facts which have accumulated 

 in the course of time, and nothing more. 

 So long as we entertain even a lingering 

 suspicion that they are anything more, sys- 

 tematic botany will not be able to accom- 

 plish its real object, which is certainly very 



important. We are all convinced, theoret- 

 ically at least, that not only are all plants 

 gradually changing, and sooner or later will 

 no more be what they now appear to us to 

 be than they are now what they were in 

 times past, and we also know that the means- 

 which we have of studying them are chang- 

 ing as well. Our so-called species are merely 

 snap-shots at the procession of nature as it 

 passes along before us. The picture may 

 be clear or obscure, natural or distorted^ 

 according to our skill and care, but in any 

 case it represents but a temporary phase,, 

 and in a short time will no longer be a faith- 

 ful picture of what really lies before us, for 

 we must not forget that the procession is 

 moving constantly onward and at a more 

 rapid rate than some suspect. Better cam- 

 eras will be invented, and when another 

 generation of botanists snap ofi" their pic- 

 tures they will undoubtedly look back with 

 pit}', if not with contempt, on our faded 

 and indistinct productions. 



Whether or not species really exist in na- 

 ture is a question which may be left to- 

 philosophy. Our so-called species are only 

 attempts to arrange groups of individual 

 plants according to the best light we have 

 at the moment, knowing that when more is 

 known about them our species will be re- 

 modeled. We should not allow ourselves 

 to be deluded by the hope of finding abso- 

 lute standards, but it should be our object 

 to arrange what is really known, so that it 

 can be easily grasped and utilized. Utility 

 may, perhaps, sound strange and may seem 

 to some to be a very low aim in science,, 

 but in the end utility will carry the day in 

 this case, for systematic botany is a means,, 

 not an end. Its true object should be to- 

 map out the vegetable kingdom in such a 

 way that all known plants are grouped as 

 clearly and distinctly as possible in order 

 that the horticulturist, the forester, the 

 physiologist may be able to obtain the facta 

 needed by them in their work. Our pres- 



