HoBKiRK : Species. 



9 



and a correspondent and friend of mine, published a review of this 

 book, in which he criticised it most freely, and in which he says that 

 he cannot accept Jordan's idea of a species. He believes his criterion 

 to be defective, and that in a great number of cases he has been 

 content with analogies ; that he has inferred the general from the 

 particular — a method which frequently leads to error. It remains now 

 to decide (says Crepin) — and this is the chief point in the discussion — 

 whether the modern school, of which Jordan is the exponent, by 

 means of its criterion, has indicated the true unity or species. If 

 such be the case, we (Linneans) must acknowledge that what we have 

 taken for species are in reality generic groups, and that true species 

 are infinitely more numerous than we had supposed, that their affini- 

 ties are in general very close, and that they are only distinguished 

 from one another by very slight and not easily found differences." It 

 will be observed that Crepin here calls himself a Linnean, which, to 

 him, signifies a position intermediate between the " splitters " on the 

 one side, of the Jordanic school, and the lumpers " on the other side, 

 or the school of Bentham, Cosson, and Germain. At the same time, 

 while finding fault with Jordan for splitting up recognised species, he 

 equally censures Bentham and the others for lumping together forms 

 which he considers sufficiently distinct. 



I have been led into these particulars with a view of strengthening 

 the position advocated by Mr. Moseley, in his paper on " Species v. 

 Variety," that there is no real definition amongst botanists any more 

 than amongst entomologists as to what constitutes a species, and what 

 a variety. 



(To he continued. J 



CoiSrCHOLOGICAL NOTES. — The 



Huddersfield District has been so 

 well worked during the last ten 

 years, that there is but little new 

 to record for the last twelve 

 months ; some of the old forms 

 have been found in new localities — 

 e. g., Zonites excavata, and var. 

 vitrina, having been found in Hey 



Wood, near Honley, on the 27th 

 March last, where the var. appears 

 to be more plentiful than the type. 

 The animal and shell have been so 

 well described by Jeffreys and 

 others, that I need not say any- 

 thing on that part of the subject. 

 I have also to record that Mr. 

 J ackson and myself found, for the 

 first time in the " consolidated " 

 district, on the 29th of March last, 



