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THE TYPICAL FORM AND THE SERIES OF FORMS 
Professor Dr, Julius Roll 
Under the title “ Artentypen und Formenreihen bei den Torfmoosen” 
I published in 1888 an article in No. 22-26 of the Botanical Centralblatt. An 
article by Mr. LeRoy Andrews of Ithaca, New York, published under the 
title “Dr, Roll’s Proposals for the Nomenclature of Sphagnum” in The 
Bryologist, Vol. XIII, January, 1910, makes it necessary for me to refer to 
the afore mentioned article, 
I have not created a new sy stein of Sphagnology as he supposes, but 
have merely recommended a new method of enquiry into the science, a 
method which I have applied in my publication “ Zur Systematik der Torf- 
moose ” (1886) which instead of describing types of species (Artentypen), 
puts a series of forms (Formenreihen) together and describes them. I hold 
that as the Sphagna are particularly fertile in producing new forms it is 
advisable to observe and investigate these forms' as a series, rather than 
according to the older method which presupposes, or chooses, one constant 
central point, taking some arbitrary specimen from a herbarium as a basis. 
Certainly we are faced here by two methods, the old method, which first 
describes the type and then seeks the related forms, and the new method, 
which lays greater stress on investigation of forms as they appear in nature, 
and which arranges these forms in series according to their common attri- 
butes and their respective affinities. 
Constant investigation and discovery of new forms and the placing of 
such in their respective series works towards an ever increasing perfection 
of series but of course, according to this method the typical form becomes a 
moveable point, so that its determination is of decreasing value. But I have 
never denied the binomial character of my series of forms (Formenreihen). 
I have always given them the usual two names, the generic name and the 
name of the species and any one is welcome as far as I am concerned to con- 
sider any form as forma typica. 
It is a fact to be taken into account that the new method is being used 
more and more for genera and species so rich in forms as Brya, and Har- 
pidia {Drepanocladt(s), for Cirsium, Hieracium, Vtota, Rosa, Rubles, 
Salix, as in Zoology. This agrees with the principles of the theory of evo- 
lution. 
I have also protested against the renaming of the species and of my 
series of forms and their varieties and kinds, as being against the Interna- 
tional Rules of Botany. Neither is it credible that by merely renaminga 
