160 



argument, tlie basis of his various doctrines, — at any 

 rate of those in which the critical subject of arrangement 

 is concerned ; I shall perhaps be pardoned, after having 

 been drawn, in the preceding chapters (however involun- 

 tarily), into the question of ' species,' as rigidly defined, 

 if I now ofier a few passing remarks on the theory of 

 genera. 



There can be no doubt that amongst a large class of 

 ordiaary observers a clear perception of the generic 

 system, in an abstract sense, does not by any means 

 prevad. What the nature of a genus really is, would 

 appear to have been very commonly overlooked, or per- 

 haps misunderstood, by people of this stamp ; and the 

 consequence has been, that the ■wddest notions have 

 frequently arisen, even from men of sound specific 

 attainments, as to the claims (for annihilation or re- 

 tention, as ' genera ') of certain subsidiary zoological 

 assemblages. The terms ' genus ' and ' species ' have 

 been conjointly so long associated in our minds with the 

 selfsame things (whatsoever they may be), that they 

 have become almost part and parcel of the objects them- 

 selves; so that the student who does not sufficiently 

 reflect on their true signification, is apt to regard them 

 as of equal importance, — or, rather, more often perhaps 

 than otherwise, to make the latter subservient (or 

 inferior) to the former ! This however is, in reality, the 

 very reverse of what should be the case, as a moment's 

 consideration will indeed at once convince us : for what 

 are genera, after all, but dilatations (as it were) along a 



