No. 496] ASPECTS OF THE SPECIES QUESTION 



may be abandoned. The elementary species then be- 

 comes the species of taxonomy. Something akin to this 

 has already taken place in certain genera, notably 

 Crataegus, Viola and Sisyrinchium. Those who take this 

 attitude should abandon the year 175;} as a starting point 

 for specific nomenclature, since a new conception of 

 species demands a new datum line. Possibly this datum 

 line is furnished by the experimental work of Jordan on 

 Draba verna. Such a revolution would of course be ap- 

 palling in its consequences. The present status of 

 Crataegus, perhaps, gives an index of what is to come, 

 if this idea is accepted; where now w T e have dozens of 

 species, we may expect hundreds or even thousands. 

 We may even expect the appearance of a taxonomic daily 

 newspaper with its hourly record of new species and 

 their fluctuations, comparable with market quotations in 

 a period of financial panic. (2) The alternative is to 

 retain the Linnean species concept as a working theory, 

 employing trinomials for elementary species. Thus we 



