"I do not know who first emphasized the need for a clear understanding of the sense in which the term species is to be applied. In the second half of the seventeenth century Ray shows some degree of concern on this matter. In the introduction to the Historia Plantarum, 1686, he discusses some of the difficulties and lays down the principle that varieties which can be produced from the seed of the same plant are to be regarded as belonging to one species, being, I believe, the first to suggest this definition."
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AphoristsNaturalists from EnglandAcademics from the United KingdomBotanists from EnglandPsychologists from England
Original Language: English
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William Bateson, Problems in Genetics (1913).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ray
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John Ray
John Ray (29 November 1627 – 17 January 1705) was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history.
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