Professor Punnett once wrote that Darwin's great work had in
point of fact been instrumental in deflecting attention away
from the question of the origin of species and canalizing it
into the broader problem of large-scale evolution. Today, after
eighty years, the species problem has come to the forefront of
biological research. This is due partly to the progress of
systematics itself, the amassing and analysis of detailed
collections of animals and plants from every region, and partly
to the rise of new branches of biology, such as genetics,
cytology, and ecology, which are illuminating the problem often
from unexpected angles. If Darwin were alive today, the title of
his book would have to be not the "Origin," but the "Origins of
Species." For perhaps the most salient single fact that has
emerged from recent studies is that species may arise in a
number of quite distinct ways. From another angle, we may say
that the study of species is turning into the study of evolution
in action. Large-scale evolution we