THE NATURALIST 



"Labor Omnia Vincit.'' 



CONSIDERATIONS ON SPECIES'' APROPOS OF A NEW WORK 



BY M. JORDAN. 



BY FRANgOIS CREPIN, 



Professor of Botany in the Horticultural Scliool at Ghent. 



It remains now to decide, — and this is tlie cMef point in tliis discus- 

 sion, — whether the modern school, by means of its criterion, has indicated 

 the true unity or species. If such he the case, we, — Linneans, — must 

 acknowledge that what we have taken for species are in reality generic 

 groups ; and that the true species are infinitely more numerous than we had 

 thought ; that their affinities are in general very close ; and that they are 

 only distinguished from one another by very subtle differences. Granting 

 for the moment that this is the ease, let us examine the perturbations which 

 would result from the new point of view from which, the species must be 

 judged. All our descriptive works must be re-written, — this is easily under- 

 stood, — and the great majority of our Phytographers and our amateurs would 

 have to begin their studies anew. Alas, what labour, what study ! By a 

 single stroke, we find ourselves face to face Avith a chaos almost equal to that 

 which our Floras presented when Linneus at first set himself to work. The 

 Flora of Europe includes from 8000 to 9000 types, called linnean, (we only 

 speak of the vascular plants) j now these 8000 or 9000 must be dismembered into 

 50,000 or 60,000 new species, if M. Jordan's principles are applied to them. 

 We say 50,000 to 60,000, but we should not be surprised to see them mount 

 up to 100,000 ! Some 10,000 types more would make litle difference to good 

 workers, if these legions of species could be distinguished by more or less 

 appreciable characters ; but unfortunately, their delineation and limitation 

 would be often a work of incredible difficulty. Ordinarily, they could only 

 No. 25, May 1. a 



