PROF. CREPIN : CONSIDERATIONS ON "SPECIES." 5 



say there are many wliich are excellent according to our views, and which 

 have been neglected in consequence of the indolence of the Linnean school. 

 These riches, acquired by the indefatigable researches of the leader of the new 

 school in France, do not, however, constitute the chief title to this glory : what 

 raises him most is the influence which he has exercised, and still exercises on 

 science. It is he who has roused the old school from its torpor. We may reckon 

 many able observers before him, but the mass of descriptive botanists have 

 followed a routine, which required but very superficial labour. In their 

 books, they have contented themselves with identifying, more or less cor- 

 rectly, the old types, distinguishing them by a small number of sufficiently 



: striking characters, and neglecting the numerous forms which are derived or 

 seem to be derived from these types. There were no experiments, no real 

 criticism. He has rudely shook the routinists — ^has she^vn them what 

 analysis should be, — and lastly he has brought his experiments to bear. To 

 all he says — ^you admit that persistence of characters is the best mark of 

 species : very well ; but I have made long continued experiments and on a large 

 scale, and I find that what you took for specific characters are really characters 

 of a higher order, and that all your pretended varieties are really good and 

 legitimate species, marked by excellent characters which are invariably per- 

 sistent. What could the old school answer to such categorical language 1 



i They were completely taken aback : they had no positive experiments to 

 oppose against those of the reformer. They did ansvfer, it is true, but only 

 with simple speculative ideas, with hypotheses but not with facts, which are 

 everything in the experimental sciences. A certain number of serious 

 observers rallied round the ideas of the new master, and became Ms disciples, 

 but many others, detecting what was fallacious in his doctrines, did not join 

 his ranks. Having confidence in the old method of observation, they betook 



I themselves courageously to their studies afresh, reconsidered their previous 

 observations, and foUovf ed the example set by M. Jordan ; they studied the 



j forms they had hitherto neglected and experimented on a number of them. 

 These first and more profound studies have not modified their ideas as to 

 what constitutes a species : on the contrary, they are led to enforce them, and 

 give them a more solid basis. The final result of their efl'orts will be to 

 make us understand better what is a veritable species. Yet without M. 

 Jordan they would have still gone on a long time in the paths of routine, 

 and unintelligible labours. 



