The American Midland Naturalist 
PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY THE UNIVERSITY 
OF NOTRE DAME, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA. 
Vol. I. OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 1910. No. 10," 
Certain Aspects of the Species Question. 
BY EDWARD L. GREENE. 
Some months ago, while endeavoring to reduce in some 
degree the confusion of an overladen and disordered work table, 
I found one corner of it occupied by a formidable stack of pam- 
phlets most of which I had wished and meant to read, yet none 
of which I had seemed to find time to peer into. Attempting 
to assort these, I came at length upon one most inviting looking 
blue-paper-covered brochure, something about which constrained 
me to pause and rest awhile, and rea 
Opening at random this fair document, my eyes fell on this 
caption: “The Taxonomic Aspect of the Species Question." 
I could not at first read much beyond the title itself, it seemed 
to me to be such a remarkable one, and so ill devised, so pleonastic; 
for two out of four of the terms of it appeared to me to be redun- 
dant. Inasmuch as species are in their very essence taxonomic 
units, one cannot touch the subject of species without immediate- 
ly involving himself in the subject of taxonomy. The species 
idea, and taxonomy, so long as species are considered from any 
standpoint not wholly unscientific, seem absolutely inseparable. 
If I am right in this, I said to myself, then this title would have 
been improved had it read simply: The Species Question, for the 
taxonomic is unmistakably implied in that, and to have written it 
out was to write a needless word, and the filling in of useless words 
makes bad writing. These were the reflections that followed my 
-mere glance at the first title to which I came, as I opened the pam- 
phlet; and before reading I began looking to see what the other 
titles were. Going back to the beginning, I found that the very first 
caption was precisely the same as that second one, the one which 
by chance had been first to claim my attention; and as I went 
-* December 1, 1910.—Pages 245 to 267. 
