PROF. CREPIN : CONSIDERATIONS ON SPECIES." 



11 



experiment and observation from time to time liave succeeded in recognising 

 and delineating, they say, we will reduce remorselessly, we will make fine and 

 large specific types, wHcli may Ibe easily distinguished. To these savans, 

 whether men of genius or not, may we not say — you have neither the 

 leisure nor the requisite patience to occupy yourselves seriously with phyto- 

 graphy, and therefore since you cannot follow attentively the species, either 

 in nature or in experimental gardens, leave them in peace, and consecrate all 

 your time to your pet studies ; confine yourselves solely to the arrangement 

 of classifications, to making, remaking and grouping genera. Let such 

 then leave the work of the formation of floras to patient investigators, who 

 make it their special study ; let them no more decide questions which they 

 do not understand, and of which they are often ignorant of the first principles. 

 This language may seem bold, but it is fully justified by the strange deeds of 

 certain persons, whose names, nevertheless, blazon the annals of science. 



The progressive school, — the school of experiment — must again fight 

 against the retrogrades ; it must sustain the cause of truth against those 

 cabinet-botanists, who, as M. Jordan justly says, establish nearly all their 

 species from materials found in lierharia, and on very insufficient data. 



Whilst awaiting the triumph of the Linnean progressive school, let us 

 leave the innovators to march on in front ; let us leave them, with their 

 lively faith, patiently to investigate the character of that multitude of forms 

 which they would make into species : they v/ill execute the task better than 

 we should, for nothing stimulates an observer so much, nothing renders his 

 eye so piercing, nothing sharpens analysis more, than the thought of discover- 

 ing new types where others do not see them. The regenerate Linnean 

 school will follow them, will sift their creations, and verify their essays. At 

 present, the important work for this school is experiments on cultivation, and 

 profound observations on transitory forms. Also, it is beginning to per- 

 ceive, that it is by these means that it will keep on the right side of its 

 adversaries. As for ourselves we are quite confident of its success, and we 

 hope that in the course of a few years it -will have amassed such a number 

 of positive proofs as will force its antagonists to silence. 



We shall conclude these observations by stating a number of proposi- 

 tions, by way of a resume of the question imder discussion. They merit the 

 study of all those who are interested in the eternal problem of species, 

 i — ^The Linnean school has not generally made use of a practical criterium 



for bemg assured of the legitimacy of its specific creations, 

 ii. — The great majority of species of the Linnean school only rest on theoretic 

 ideas, — hypotheses. 



