Scylla, Charybdis and Darwin
- 1 November 1938
- journal article
- research article
- Published by University of Chicago Press in The American Naturalist
- Vol. 72 (743) , 547-561
- https://doi.org/10.1086/280806
Abstract
Sub-specific and supra-specific differences in several genera of the Labiatae, particularly Hyptis and Salvia, are examined in the light of Anderson''s suggestion that changes in emphasis separate species while categories of higher rank (genera, sub-genera) may be separated by differences in pattern. The evidence from these genera does not bear out the suggestion. Changes of emphasis and differentiation both occur but it is very difficult to distinguish between them and both may characterize specific as well as supra-specific differences. Species groups (sub-genera) are rather to be defined by different combinations of changes of emphasis. The author then discusses the genus from the standpoint of (1) its use as a subjective convenience for the cataloger and (2) its existence as an evolutionary reality. He concludes that in the latter sense it may indeed be true that differences of pattern are of generic significance.This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Supra-Specific Variation in Nature and in Classification from the View- Point of BotanyThe American Naturalist, 1937