THE TAXOXOMIC ASPECT OF THE SPECIES 

 QUESTION 

 DR. NATHANIEL LORD BRITTON 

 New York Botanical Garden 

 1. Historic 



The ancients knew and described plants by generic 

 names. Their knowledge of them was general and super- 

 ficial. According to Adanson, 1 Conrad Gesner, 1559, 

 was the first to indicate the distinction of plants into 

 genera and species, although this advance is also claimed 

 for Columna. Subsequent authors in general, for about 



names, but without definite rules for the limitations of 



(Ki!U), defined genera with reference to their fruits and 

 were followed by Linmrus. 



Pay regarded specific differences as those that are 

 somewhat notable and fixed and not due to cultivation 

 and which cultivation does not change. The way to 

 determine these, according to him. is to grow them from 

 seed, because all the differences which are found in dif- 

 ferent plants grown from the same seed are accidental 

 and not specific, but he was not always exact in following 

 this rule. 



Tournefort declared that it troubled him very little 



long as they differed in remarkable and perceptible 

 qualities; Adanson approves this view, remarking that 

 it seems to him sufficient and reasonable. 



We enumerate as many species as different forms 



