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produce fertile progeny ; varieties for all the various forms from such a union ; hybrids 

 for such as are invariably infertile from a given union, such uniform infertility being taken 

 as a proof that the parents belonged to different species. This arrangement is brief, 

 natural, easy to comprehend, and exact, and is as applicable to animal life in Nature as 

 in domestication. The way man obtains his varieties is by careful, intelligent selection 

 and isolation ; no such control being known to exist in Nature for such a purpose, the 

 appearance of varieties there must be referred to some other cause. Many species vary 

 greatly, a few seem not to vary at all. There are many kinds of variations — 1st, sexual, 

 where the sexes differ in size, form and color ; 2nd, seasonal, different broods of one species 

 appearing at different times of the year, differing in some respect • 3rd, local, where different 

 forms of the same species are found in different localities ; 4th, v\ ell-marked varieties of 

 some species, found in the same locality, coming from the same parents, belonging to the 

 same brood ; 5th, species that give broods in which no two specimens are exactly alike. 



Into the causes of all this I do not enquire ; it is in the constitutions of the organisms ; 

 how it got there we may never know ; it is a fact of their existence, that is enough for the 

 present. One thing we may be certain of, it is not of recent origin, it may have been 

 accumulating for times indefinite. About the first there is no trouble when once the fact 

 is known. The second has been satisfactorily dealt with in the last check list of North 

 American butterflies. The fourth wants to be dealt with in the same manner ; the mode 

 of speaking of " a species and its varieties" is not in harmony with Nature. A species is 

 one, its parts may be many, and each of them is of equal value in the make-up of the 

 species ; the varieties of a species seem to express the natural relationship. In the fifth 

 there can be no separation made. Now for the third : migration is well known to be a 

 habit of many insects ; that the external influence of " climate and environment affects 

 the descendants from a common parent form " is also a well-known fact in every depart- 

 ment of biology. Some insects are extremely sensitive to these influences, a slight change 

 in location producing a perceptible difference in their appearance. Others are found in 

 widely separated parts of the globe with no perceptible difference in them. All kinds are 

 not affected in the same way or by the same influences. We know that in and in- 

 breeding of domestic animals has the effect of producing a fixity of type that is afterwards 

 difficult to overcome. So here, a lengthened residence in one locality will give the influences 

 of that locality an opportunity to impress themselves on the resident and its descendants, 

 which will tend to give the change produced a more permanent character. Now, if we breed 

 two such migrants through all their stages and find them differ from one another in each, 

 are we warranted in concluding that they are two species? 



Dr. McMonagle, in his evidence before the Ontario Agricultural Commission, says 

 that he lias examined the egg-cells of horses under the microscope, and found that the 

 cells of the thorough-bred were all of the same type, form and vitality, whilst those of the 

 cross-bred were no! bo, and that he could distinguish the one from the other. Now, if 

 such a change is produced in the higher forms of life, how much more likely in the lower 1 

 It is by crossing the two forms that we are to discover whether they are species or the 

 varieties of a species. How often dc we meet in entomological literature with such expres- 

 sions as, good species, true species, separate species, distinct species ; as if there were 

 species that were not »ood, true, separate, and distinct ; scientific terms ought not be so 

 handled. Let me refer to the Colias controversy for illustration. We have various forms 

 extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; a large number of these have been investigated, 

 carefully described, and distinguishing names given to them, and unfortunately termed 

 species, and placed in the catalogues as such. Some one discovered sufficient proof to 

 satisfy him that they are not species, and wished to abolish eight or ten names and bundle 

 as many separate forms under one name and call that a species. This seemed to make it 

 necessary, to save the descriptions and distinguishing names, for some one else to try and 

 prove that they were species ; and so it -went on. Now, as the object of describing and 

 naming is for future identification only, and not to settle the question of its standing, 

 which can be done at any time wh^n sufficient information has been obtained, without 

 disturbing anyone's description and name, let all the forms that have been discovered to 

 be of direct kinship, from east to west, north to south, be placed under Philodice (I use 



