THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



39 



our original conception of genus and species and call the 

 variations from the type, "forms," as the fern students do ; 

 but this is not likely to be popular so long as there 

 appears to be greater glory in calling them species. 



* -X- 



From time to time vigorous protests have been made 

 against the giving of specific rank to trifling variations of 

 plants, but after the smoke of battle has cleared away, it 

 will probably be found that the "species-splitters," as they 

 have been dubbed, in their search for new forms have 

 done the science of botan^^ a great service, and at the same 

 time wrought their own undoing. The search for "new 

 species" is having the effect of turning attention to these 

 minor forms, and the discovery of each new one adds but 

 another link to the chain from one true species to another. 

 After all are accounted for, it is eas^^ for the botanist to 

 see which are valid species and the others will then be re- 

 duced to forms, just as has recently happened in the cases 

 of the white birches and of the genus Nemophila. In da^^s 

 to come these "splitters" will be regarded much as the 

 botanical world now regard Gerard and Rafinesque. 



* 



There are many variations from the type that are dis- 

 tributed over definite ranges; but the practice of naming 

 new species from single specimens, without knowing 

 whether there is another one in the w^orld, is becoming- 

 much too common. The botanist finds among a bundle of 

 dried plants, a specimen differing from the type in some 

 slight particular, and at once jumps to the conclusion that 

 it is new, apparently, forgetting how much sunlight, soil, 

 exposure and moisture ma3^ change the same species. 

 Pyrola oxypetala is a classic example of this. The onh" 

 specimens of it ever collected, now lie, bug eaten and 

 dilapidated in the herbarium of Columbia Universit3^ 

 They differ from Pyrola secunda principally in having 

 sharper pointed leaves and petals and there can be little 

 doubt that oxypetala is a mere form of secunda. And yet 

 every manual calls this a good species and future books 

 will doubtless continue to insisit upon it. 



