N'OL. 43 T O R R E Y A July 1943 



Some Economic Aspects of Taxonomy* 



E. D. ;Merrill 



One dictionary definition of taxonomy is: "Classification; especially clas- 

 sification of animals and plants according to their natural relationships ; also 

 the laws and principles of such classification." Another, a bit longer is : "The 

 laws and principles of taxology, or their application to the classifying of objects 

 of natural history; that department of science which treats of classification; 

 the practice of classification according to certain principles." And in this same 

 dictionary taxology, a term I have never wittingly used, and which I shall 

 eschew, is defined as : "The science of arrangement or classification ; what is 

 known of taxonomy." Here I infer that the lexicographer responsible for the 

 definition of both taxonomy and taxology may have preferred the latter to the 

 former, but taxonomy, widely and universally used, will scarcely be replaced 

 by taxology, no matter ^^hat a lexicographer may prefer. 



Under the first definition, including the laws and principles of classification, 

 one could wander far afield and become bogged down in discussions of the laws 

 of nomenclature for nomenclature cannot be disassociated with taxonomy, for 

 we must, of necessity, use names for the objects with which we are concerned. 

 However, I have no intention of thus widening the subject to include problems 

 of nomenclature and interpretations of the rules and regulations set up by inter- 

 national botanical congresses to govern the application of names, for such dis- 

 cussion would be endless. 



This topic was assigned to me and is, perhaps, not one that I would have 

 chosen voluntarily. Thus I feel relatively little personal responsibility as to just 

 how I may develop the subject, realizing very fully that no two individuals 

 would treat it in a comparable manner. To limit the definition to "classification 

 according to natural relationships" would be unwise, for in practice, while it is 

 fully realized that arrangement according to natural relationships is the objec- 

 tive that is always desirable, this is not always practicable. Often our reference 

 collections are totally inadequate, and we have to do the best that we can with 

 what is available. The result is that not infrequently we are obliged to utilize 

 characters of a more or less obvious nature, and not always those that indicate 

 the closest natural relationships between \-arious groups, whether these be 

 major or minor categories. Again, we may utilize a combination of obvious 

 utilitarian characters associated with others that clearly indicate natural 

 affinities, in order to attain a certain objective. 



As long as the learned world of the early European civilizations up to and 



* Read at the 75th Anniversary Celebration of the Torrey Botanical Club at The Xew 

 York Botanical Garden. Tuesday. June 23, 1942. 



£0 



