Origin of Wild Species 593 



the discovery of new forms in the wild state. 

 New varieties may appear, but may be crowded 

 out the first year. The chances are much 

 greater with perennials, and still greater with 

 shrubs or trees. A single aberrant specimen 

 may live for years and even for centuries, and 

 under such conditions is pretty sure to be dis- 

 covered sooner or later. Hence it is no won- 

 der that many such cases are on record. They 

 have this in common that the original plant 

 of the variety has been found among a vast 

 majority of representatives of the correspond- 

 ing species. Nothing of course is directly 

 known about its origin. Intermediate links 

 have as a rule been wanting, and the seeds, 

 which have often been sown, have not yielded 

 reliable results, as no care was taken to pre- 

 serve the blossoms from intercrossing with their 

 parent-forms. 



Stress should be laid upon one feature of 

 these curious occurrences. Eelatively often 

 the same novelty has been found twice or thrice, 

 or even more frequently, and under conditions 

 which make it very improbable that any relation 

 between such occurrences might exist. The 

 same mutation must have taken place more than 

 once from the same main stem. 



The most interesting of these facts are con- 

 nected with the origin of the purple beech, which 



