MR. BALL ON PLANTS COLLECTED IN MOROCCO. 271 
now generally recognised as to the nomenclature of species should be 
extended to subspecies. There can be no objection to repeating some 
een epithet, such as glabra, hirsuta, and the like, to indicate 
Siiephites should be recognised by a distinct name, such as wi 
admit of no confusion with other forms of the same group, and allow 
us to refer to it without the cumbrous addition of the name of the 
(assumed) parent species. 
ough, as I have already intimated, I do not believe that . 
will ever be possible to give categoric al definitions of the term 
. subspecies, and variety, and ge less that a positive test can 
which to decide on the rank that should be assigned to a 
any check to Shiver mii 
To illustrate the views here advocated I will — as an — 
a widely-diffused and very variable plant, the common Zuphras 
officinalis. In our islands the forms included u nder this name differ 
others these are numerous and sharp, hile in common mou 
( ishurgensis) the narrow leaves have very few prominent 
teeth, each prolonged into a setaceous point ong 
cies. care observer 
however, find that all the differences which mark these so-called 
specie than exaggerations of the slighter variations 
Rik the anh i re exhibits, and further, that the 
i d 
groups of forms belonging to one region do not exactly correspon 
with those inhabiting a different region “ the same continent, so that 
m . 
resembling each other that even or study and observation would 
scarcely suffice to distinguish it were true, as ordan, 
the most careful and consistent are aie . his own school, 
contends, that each of these f s is really a permanently distinct 
organic unit, neither derived from’ sranotlier form nor capable of giving 
birth to a different one, the student of Nature would have no choice 
