424 CLASSIFICATION. Chap. XIII. 



in the important character of having a longer beak, yet 

 all are kept together from having the common habit 

 of tumbling ; but the short-faced breed has nearly or 

 quite lost this habit ; nevertheless, without any reasoning 

 or thinking on the subject, these tumblers are kept in 

 the same group, because allied in blood and alike in 

 some other respects. If it could be proved that the 

 Hottentot had descended from the Negro, I think he 

 would be classed under the Negro group, however much 

 he might differ in colour and other important characters 

 from negroes. 



With species in a state of nature, every naturalist has 

 in fact brought descent into his classification ; for he 

 includes in his lowest grade, or that of a species, the 

 two sexes ; and how enormously these sometimes differ 

 in the most important characters, is known to every 

 naturalist : scarcely a single fact can be predicated in 

 common of the males and hermaphrodites of certain 

 cirripedes, when adult, and yet no one dreams of sepa- 

 rating them. The naturalist includes as one species the 

 several larval stages of the same individual, however 

 much they may differ from each other and from the 

 adult; as he likewise includes the so-called alternate 

 generations of Steenstrup, which can only in a technical 

 sense be considered as the same individual. He in- 

 cludes monsters ; he includes varieties, not solely be- 

 cause they closely resemble the parent-form, but because 

 they are descended from it. He who believes that the 

 cowslip is descended from the primrose, or conversely, 

 ranks them together as a single species, and gives a 

 single definition. As soon as three Orchidean forms 

 (Monochanthus, Myanthus, and Catasetum), which had 

 previously been ranked as three distinct genera, were 

 known to be sometimes produced on the same spike, 

 they were immediately included as a single species. 



