534 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 536. 



five per cent, starch corn. The name will 

 be of no particular consequence. 



If organisms are to be recognized on 

 their merits, then we must cease to class 

 some forms as 'natural' and others as 'arti- 

 ficial.' In the future, the products of the 

 breeder and the plants of the garden are 

 to find their rightful place in systematic 

 plans. They illustrate processes of evolu- 

 tion ; and if these processes are hastened by 

 man, the products are all the more worthy 

 of consideration in man-made schemes. 

 The old-time distinction between native 

 forms and domestic forms is arbitrary, un- 

 necessary and pernicious. All animals are 

 animals and all plants are plants. 



If we are to desigTiate minor groups or 

 differences in terms of their real qualities, 

 you will still ask how it can be done as a 

 matter of practise, how we shall be able 

 quickly and clearly to determine what par- 

 ticular animal or plant we have in hand. 

 This is really a part of the problem — how 

 to express our ideas without confusion. In 

 the first place, I should say that the change 

 in point of view will come slowly and we 

 shall work out the means as we proceed. I 

 desire only to suggest the direction in 

 which progress seems to lie. In the second 

 place, I should say that in the future we 

 may care less for merely naming a thing 

 than we have in the past— perhaps our 

 formal nomenclature may well stop with 

 characters that are gross and evident. In 

 the third place— and this is the real crux 

 of the matter— I should say that formal 

 nomenclature must never stand in the way 

 of our expressing the full truth about or- 

 ganisms. At best, nomenclature is a make- 

 shift. It is a secondary consideration. If 

 this statement is not accepted, then the 

 only alternative is to say that systems of 

 nomenclature and classification belong to 

 one realm and that biological studies belong 

 to another, and that, therefore, these sys- 

 tems can not be expected to conform to our 



expanding knowledge. This position would 

 be untenable from the fact that clas.sifica- 

 tion is always re-adapting and re-shaping 

 itself to our changing points of view; and 

 nomenclature can not be wholly divorced 

 from taxonomy. Taxonomy represents a 

 progressive effort; nomenclature a con- 

 servative effort. Our current phytographic 

 and zoographic methods do not allow us to 

 express our ideas of species. 



Every systematist knows how unsatisfac- 

 tory the mere 'determining' of species is. 

 It consists mainly in matching certain ar- 

 bitrary characters or marks with similar 

 marks of specimens in the ' collection. ' "We 

 may have no knowledge whether these 

 marks have any significance in the physi- 

 ology or phylogeny of the species, that is, 

 whether they are really of any biological 

 value. In theory, we try to hold the sys- 

 tematist to what we call consistency in the 

 determining of species; but as a matter of 

 fact the systematist is constantly changing 

 his mind as to the values of diagnostic 

 marks— and herein, it seems to me, lies the 

 safety of systematic work. A few years 

 ago a botanist sent me a plant to name. 

 When I had returned the name he up- 

 braided me by saying that he had sent me 

 the identical plant the year before and I 

 had then given it another name. I replied 

 that it was his own fault, for he had no 

 business to send me the specimen twice. 



The question really comes to this— Shall 

 we know two kinds of species, one of tax- 

 onomy and one of biology? If so, then it 

 is scarcely worth while to try to construct 

 any scheme of taxonomy that shall en- 

 deavor to express our latest ideas of the 

 ascent of organisms, for a scheme of classi- 

 fication for formal species is needed only 

 for the purpose of ready reference. Com- 

 stock has stated the question well in the 

 following paragraphs:* 



*^ Evolution and Taxonomy,' Wilder Quarter- 

 Century Book, pp. 44 and 45. 



