[Taxacom] Lumping and Splitting

[Beach, James H]

Lumping and splitting will always be with us, I fear, whatever one's  
classificatory philosophy.  To quote Davis and Heywood:

"Short of the death penalty, there will always be lumpers and  
splitters. Splitting tends to be accentuated by age, a characters of  
the malaise being that the sufferer seldom admits that he is a  
splitter."

Peter Stevens

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Hmm.

Professor John Beaman of Michigan State University and lately active at
Kew, always held:

"The more you know, the more you lump."

So, I think we could use that to counter Davis and Heywood (which Beaman
used in his taxonomy courses) and seed a food fight, but be warned,
anyone who is a closet lumper and rails against the lumping lifestyle,
risks being outed!

Jim B.

_____________________________
James H. Beach
Biodiversity Research Center
University of Kansas
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
T 785 864-4645, F 785 864-5335