[54] In the same manner bluebells vary in the size and
shape of the corolla, which may be wide or narrow, bell-shaped or
conical, with the tips turned downwards, sidewards or backwards.
As a rule all of the more striking elementary types have been described
by local botanists under distinct specific names, while they are thrown
together into the larger systematic species by other authors, who study
the distribution of plants over larger portions of the world. Everything
depends on the point of view taken. Large floras require large species.
But the study of local floras yields the best results if the many forms
of the region are distinguished and described as completely as possible.
And the easiest way is to give to each of them a specific name. If two
or more elementary species are united in the same district, they are
often treated in this way, but if each region had its own type of some
given species, commonly the part is taken for the whole, and the sundry
forms are described under the same name, without further distinctions.
Of course these questions are all of a practical and conventional
nature, but involve the different methods in which different authors
deal with the same general fact. The fact is that systematic species are
compound groups, exactly like the genera and that their real units [55]
can only be recognized by comparative experimental studies.
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