No. 496] ASPECTS OF THE SPECIES QUESTION 263 



that have too often been given species. The fifth method, 

 though requiring the use of the trinomial, is the best, 

 It has all the brevity possible, and yet indicates ancestor, 

 method of origin and factor concerned. It is interesting 

 to note that this problem was worked out in 1902 in essen- 

 tially the same fashion. 3 The shade form of Galium 

 boreale was then called Galium boreale hi/locolum. The 

 present method has the advantage of brevity, and of 

 referring directly to the causal factor concerned in pro- 

 ducing the ecad rather than to the habitat as a whole. It 

 is a relatively simple matter to recognize and produce 

 sun and shade ecads, wet and dry ecads, but ecologic 

 analysis can hardly go further at present. Consequently, 

 the use of scias, lielias, xeras and hydras, denoting re- 

 spectively shade form, sun form, dry form and wet form, 

 will not only enable us to designate all new ecads briefly 

 and conveniently, but it will also reveal the ancestor, 

 method of origin and causal factor at a glance. 



After much puzzling, it seems that it will prove diffi- 

 cult, if not impossible to improve upon the conventional 

 method of designating hybrids, viz., Galium boreale X 

 triftdum. Until more is known of variants, it is proposed 

 to designate them by a brief and applicable trinomial 

 term, e. g., Galium boreale exiguum. While this is the 

 usual trinomial, it would at once reveal the method of 

 origin, as well as the ancestor, by virtue of the fact that the 

 other three methods of origin have their proper trinomial 

 form. In our present knowledge of mutants, it seems 

 impossible to take the cause into account. The sugges- 

 tion is accordingly made that the mutant be named with 

 reference to its most striking characteristic, the trinomial 

 term to bear the prefix per, very, referring to the salta- 

 tory nature of mutation, and thus denoting the method 



cated by comparing the trinomials thus formed with the 



