THE USE OF MULTIPLE MEASUREMENTS IN TAXONOMIC PROBLEMS在分类问题中使用多重度量.pdfVIP

THE USE OF MULTIPLE MEASUREMENTS IN TAXONOMIC PROBLEMS By R. A. FISHER, Sc.D., F.R.S. I. DISCRIMINANT FUNCTIONS WHEN two or more populations have been measured in several characters, Xl •.. , X s , special interest attaches to certain linear functions of the measurements by which the populations are best discriminated. At the authors suggestion use has already been made of this fact in craniometry (a) by Mr E. S. Martin, who has applied the principle to the sex differences in measurements of the mandible, and (b) by Miss Mildred B1trnard, who showed how to obtain from a series of dated series the particular compound of cranial measurements showing most distinctly a progressive or secular trend. In the present paper the application of the same principle will be illustrateJ. on a taxonomic problem; some questions connected with the precision of the processes employed will also be discussed. II. ARITHMETICAL PROCEDURE Table I shows measurements of the flowers of fifty plants each of the two species Iris setosa and I. versicolor, found growing together in the same colony and measured by Dr E. Anderson, to whom I am indebted for the use of the data. Four flower measure- ments are given. We shall first consider the question: What linear function of the four measurements