From:
Alexander Agassiz
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
4 Mar 1872
Source of text:
G. R. Agassiz ed. 1913, p. 119
Summary:
Thanks for new [6th] edition of Origin.
Is working on Echini.
The more material he gets the less easy it is to diagnose a genus or species. Has little doubt that "classification is nothing but the most arbitrary convenient tool, depending upon the material at our command at a special time".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project