ule three distinct hermaphrodite forms, bearing
three different kinds of females and three or even six different kinds
of males. Nevertheless these cases are only exaggerations of the common
fact that the female produces offspring of two sexes which sometimes
differ from each other in a wonderful manner.

DOUBTFUL SPECIES.

The forms which possess in some considerable degree the character of
species, but which are so closely similar to other forms, or are so
closely linked to them by intermediate gradations, that naturalists do
not like to rank them as distinct species, are in several respects the
most important for us. We have every reason to believe that many of
these doubtful and closely allied forms have permanently retained their
characters for a long time; for as long, as far as we know, as have good
and true species. Practically, when a naturalist can unite by means of
intermediate links any two forms, he treats the one as a variety of the
other, ranking the most common, but sometimes the one first described
as the species, and the other as the variety. But cases of great
difficulty, which I will not here enumerate, sometimes arise in deciding
whether or not to rank one form as a variety of another, even when
they are closely connected by intermediate links; nor will the commonly
assumed hybrid nature of the intermediate forms always remove the
difficulty. In very many cases, however, one form is ranked as a variety
of another, not because the intermediate links have actually been found,
but because analogy leads the observer to suppose either that they do
now somewhere exist, or may formerly have existed; and here a wide door
for the entry of doubt and conjecture is opened.

Hence, in determining whether a form should be ranked as a species or
a variety, the opinion of naturalists having sound judgment and wide
experience seems the only guide to follow. We must, however, in many
cases, decide by a majority of naturalists, for few well-marked and
well-known varieties can be named which have not been ranked as species
by at least some competent judges.

That varieties of this doubtful nature are far from uncommon cannot be
disputed. Compare the several floras of Great Britain, of France, or
of the United States, drawn up by different botanists, and see what
a surprising number of forms have been ranked by one botanist as good
species, and by another as mere varieties. Mr. H.C. Watson, to whom I
lie under deep