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desirable to devise a system which shall indicate this diversity. 

 We are not yet prepared, I venture to think, to do this with com- 

 plete success, but it is one of the necessities of the future ever to be 

 kept in mind. In the meanwhile, any proposal to go back to the 

 old system, and virtually ignore all the wonderful facts of segre- 

 gation which have been revealed to us in recent years, is simply 

 pernicious. 



From the standpoint of convenience and intelligibility, it seems 

 to me that there is much to be gained by the recognition of sub- 

 species, with a trinomial nomenclature. The introduction of a 

 new form as a subspecies when its precise status is uncertain, has 

 at least the advantage of calling attention to its manifest affinities, 

 and suggesting further work to determine the character and ex- 

 tent of the segregation. The proposal to deny subspecific names 

 obligatory priority when the plants they represent are treated as 

 separate species seems to me unfortunate, since it will assuredly 

 have a strong tendency to cause writers to announce their novel- 

 ties as full species whenever there is any possibility of their prov- 

 ing such, and will place more cautious workers at a disadvantage. 



I cannot see much advantage in the proposal to distinguish 

 minor forms or races by numerals. Imagine specific names re- 

 placed by numbers ! Numbers are not only less interesting than 

 names, but are more easily confused and misprinted, and when 

 errors of this kind are made there is nothing to show ivhat is 

 wrong. Is it fair to hint that this botanical penitentiary-system 

 for minor segregates is desired by those who really wish to relegate 

 these things to comparative obscurity ; whereas to some others, 

 — e. g. the evolutionist and the horticulturist, they are of prime im- 

 portance ? The system of naming things is not peculiar to science ; 

 it is found useful to extend nomenclature as far as human interest 

 can or will follow ; thus every individual of Homo sapiens has a 

 distinctive name, and if we had the sort of mind which is usually 

 attributed to the deity, I suppose every individual plant would be 

 esteemed worthy of a like distinction. As it is, the real ques- 

 tion about races is, are they worth thinking about, talking about, 

 and describing, considering our human limitations ? The answer of 

 modern biology surely is, yes ! 



