It
is an old rule in systematic botany, that no form is to be constituted a
species upon the basis of a single character. All authors agree on this
point; specific differences are derived from the totality of the
attributes, not from one organ or one quality. This rule is intimately
connected with the idea that varieties are derived from species. The
species is the typical, really existing form from which the variety has
originated by a definite change. In enumerating the different forms the
species is distinguished by the term of genuine or typical, often only
indicated as _a_ or the first; then follow the varieties sometimes in
order of their degree of difference, sometimes simply in alphabetical
order. In the case of elementary species there is no real type; no one
of them predominates because all are considered to be equal in rank, and
the systematic species to which they [128] are referred is not a really
existing form, but is the abstraction of the common type of all, just as
it is in the case of a genus or of a family.
Summarizing the main points of this discussion, we find that elementary
species are of equal rank and together build up the collective or
systematic ideal species. Varieties on the other hand are derived from a
real and commonly, still existing type.
I hope that I have succeeded in showing that the difference between
elementary species, or, as they are often called, smaller or subspecies,
on the one hand and varieties on the other, is quite a marked one.
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