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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLII 



those taxonomists who have sinned in the much making 

 of species and those who have made a so-called critical 

 study of plants without any adequate training in the 

 general principles of botany, will reform their ways. 

 In truth, they must reform. No longer may each man 

 be a law unto himself. Nor is it right that any group 

 or coterie should make rules and regulations that run 

 counter to the expressed opinions of a world botanical 

 congress. It is doubtful if any single botanist agrees 

 with all of the taxonomic expressions of the Vienna Con- 

 gress; it is even possible that some agree with none of 

 its provisions. However, it registers a general consensus 

 of opinion, agreed upon by those who thought the con- 

 gress far too radical, and by those who thought it far 

 too conservative. It marks a step in the taxonomic 

 progress of the botanical world, and there is no surer 

 way to lead toward further progress than in abiding by 

 its provisions ; on the other hand, there is no surer way 

 of ensuring the continuation of the taxonomic chaos, of 

 which we have had far too much, than in setting up indi- 

 vidual or even provincial or national codes in opposition 

 to a world code. An American school of taxonomy is 

 an anomaly, since many species are world-wide, and 

 should have world-wide names; even the local species 

 should be delimited in accordance with international 

 rules. 



Taxonomy must be scientific. It must require for its 

 devotees a training as rigid as that required by profes- 

 sional workers in morphology, physiology or ecology. 

 Species-making by taxonomic tyros must be abandoned. 

 The requirement of Latin diagnoses, though regretted 

 by many of us, may be of help in checking the voluminous 

 contributions of amateurs. In the future it must be 

 recognized that the final test of the validity of species 

 is experimental, and taxonomists must work no less in 

 the herbarium, but more in the field and in the garden. 

 If the taxonomists of the future fail in these respects, 

 a hard but certain fate awaits them. The world of 



