On 17 Nov 2008, at 11:49, Jane McGary wrote: > [Different habitats, stoloniferous habit, flowering time, size, and tepal > shape] ... are the kind of thing that is important to gardeners and > "traditional" botany. Important to gardeners, but only marginally relevant (if at all) to the delineation of species via "traditional" botany, where the emphasis is on the morphology of the sexual parts of the flowers. The classical test used to answer the question "one species or two?" is hybridization with the creation of fertile offspring. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island http://maps.google.ca/maps/…