433 



THE SPECIES QUESTION. 



1. What is a Species ? 



The amount of literature on the " Species question " is enormous; some of it has been 

 referred to as the work progressed, and one can only quote a little at this place. 



The Botanical Society of America, at its meeting of 1st January, 1908, held a 

 symposium on the subject, and Publication 34 of the Society (published at Baltimore, 

 30th May), comprises a number of brilliant papers, as follows : — 



1 " The Taxonomic Aspect of the Species Question," by Prof. Charles E. Bessey 

 and Dr. Nathaniel L. Brit ton. 



2. " The Physiological Aspect of the Species Question," by Prof. J. C. Arthur. 



3. " The Physiological Aspect of a Species," by Dr. D. T. Macdougal. 



4. " An Ecologic View of the Species Conception," by Prof. Frederic E. Clements. 



5. " ; An Ecological Aspect of the Conception of Species," by Dr. H. C. Cowles. 



These were followed by a discussion, admirable, like the papers. I only wish 

 I could reprint the whole report. 



" The question, What do we mean by a species \ is far too difficult a matter to discuss new . . -. 

 I believe we cannot do better than continue to use the word in the same sense as Darwin used it, i.e., 

 essentially in the sense of a Linnean species." (Dr. D. H. Scott, F.B.S., in Pres. Address (Botany), B.A. 

 Meeting, Edinburgh, 1921.) 



Leonard Huxley's " Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker," vol. 1, chapter 

 xxiv (On Species), is well worth reading here. 



2. Variety or Species. 



: " Tournefort declared that it troubled him very little whether the species he cited were species or 

 varieties, as long as they differed in remarkable and perceptible qualities ; Adanson approves this view, 

 remarking that it seems to him sufficient and reasonable . . . ." And again, 



" All properties of plants which are subject to change, form cither a subspecies or a variety. By 

 the former we understand such forms as continue indeed during some reproductions, but at last, by a 

 greater difference of soil, of climate, and of treatment, are cither lost or changed."' (Britton : Symposium, 

 quoted above.) 



The American botanist, Dr. G. H. Shull, says that taxonomists have definitely 

 abandoned the use of the term " variety " to the horticulturist. Although there is 

 undoubtedly a tendency in this direction, particularly perhaps, amongst American 

 botanists, varieties are acknowledged in the International Rules of Botanical Nomen- 

 clature, adopted by the International Botanical Congress of Vienna, 1905, and we 



