Whether a species brought from spore to maturity on artificial diet would conform in any reasonable way to our dim concept of its identity is also, it would seem, a problem. The variation in the field would seem to make it doubtful.
From the table immediately preceding it is plain that there is place for doubt. Color it is surmised is of itself everywhere incidental; the structure, which maintains identity or the reverse, lies deeper, although color may be none the less, in some way a resultant, and therefore in so far a reliable taxonomic guide.
The treatment of our subject so far by no means exhausts the possibilities of even the simpler phases of microscopic study. We have endeavored to appreciate the work of those who hand us the literature of the group, and to recognize what such keen-eyed men have seen; but in our western and southern forests there are probably double as many species, as species go, as we have listed.
The entire group is, as it would seem, in highest measure worthy of investigation and comprehension, and should it at any time prove that to such accomplishment the present volume may have been in any smallest way contributory, the author's satisfaction will be complete indeed.
FOOTNOTES:
[40] Farr. Cell-division in Pol. Mother-cells, Cobæa scandens, Bull. Tor. Bot. Cl., Vol. 47, pp. 325–38.
INDEX
NATURAL ORDERS, etc.