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WHAT IS A GENUS?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

Henry. H. Lyman
Affiliation:
Montreal.

Extract

This question is one that it is extremely difficult to answer satisfactiorilly.

The great naturalist, Agassiz, in his Essay on Classification, wrote:

“Genera are mos closely allied groups of animals differing **** simply in the ultimate structural peculiarities of some of their parts.”

The Century Dictionary defines genus as “a classificatory group ranking next above the species, containing a group a species (sometimes a single species) possessing certain structural characters different from those of any others.” It goes on, however, to say: “The value assigned to a genus is wholly arbitrary–that is, it is considered generic and thus constitute a genus; and genera are constantly modified and shifted by specialists, the tendency being mostly to restriction of genera, with the constant multiplication of their numbers, and the coinage of new generic names.

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Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1902

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