February, 1928 



EVOLUTION 



Pace Three 



Eightieth Anniversary of Hugo De Vries 



By J. C. Th. Uphof 



ON die sixteenth of February the eightieth birthday 

 anniversary of one of our greatest and most active 

 biologists, Hugo De Vries, will be celebrated throughout 

 the civilized world. 



De Vries was born Febru- 

 ary 16th 1848 in Haarlem. 

 Netherlands. The study of 

 botany attracted him at an 

 early age. He studied at the 

 University of Leiden and be- 

 came greatly interested in 

 work on plant physiology. 

 Later he conducted researches 

 in the laboratory of Julius 

 Sachs in Wurzburg, Germany, 

 which made him widely 

 known in the botanical world. 

 He became intensely interest- 

 ed in the origin of species, 

 especially among plants. 



In Darwin's day it was sup- 

 posed, not as a certainty but 

 just as a hypothesis, that new 

 species originated gradually 

 with but very slight changes. 

 Dr. Hugo De Vries, then a 

 professor of botany at the 

 University of Amsterdam, was 

 one of many scientists who 

 endeavored to solve by ex- 

 periment the problem of how 

 new species originated. 



In 1885 when botanizing 

 not far from Hilversum near 



Amsterdam, he found in a neglected field many speci- 

 mens of a well known evening primrose, Oenothera 

 Lamar ckiana. Among them he discovered some hereto- 

 fore unknown species that had escaped the botanists. 



De Vries gathered seeds of 0. Lamarckiana and also 

 of the new forms. They were sown in the experimental 

 section of the botanical garden in Amsterdam. These 

 unknown species came true from seed. But to his sur- 

 prise De Vries found also that some new species oc- 

 curred among the thousands of plants of 0. Lanmrckuina. 

 Some were the same as those that he had found wild, 

 but there were also novel ones. These species originated 

 from the mother plant, so to speak, with a leap or muta- 

 tion. Upon this De Vries built his Mutation Theory. 



Later other investigators strengthened this Theory of 

 Mutations by demonstrating the occurrence of such sud 

 den variations among other plants and animals. 



Hugo De Vries' name is also widely known in con- 

 nection with the Law of Mendel, which has taken such 

 a prominent place in the study of genetics and the origin 

 of species. De Vries' book "Die Mutalionstheorie" whicli 

 was published at the beginning of this century attracted 



Hugo De Vries 



world-wide attention and will be important for all time. 



Although Hugo De Vries retired as professor of bot- 

 any from the University of Amsterdam on his seventieth 

 birthday he still shows great interest in his work which is 



continuously proven by his 

 many publications. He still 

 conducts zealously his re- 

 searches in the laboratory and 

 experimental garden on his 

 estate in Lunteren in Gelder- 

 land province, Netherlands. 



Through his enormous en- 

 ergy and love for science 

 Hugo De Vries laid the basis 

 of genetics, namely the study 

 of heredity and of variations, 

 which forms the foundation 

 of our biological sciences, of 

 eugenics and last but not least 

 of plant and animal breeding. 

 Hugo De Vries, who made 

 such brilliant discoveries and 

 far reaching conclusions and 

 who has thrown so much light 

 upon experimental evolution 

 may therefore with all respect 

 be called the successor of 

 Charles Darwin. 



We all join his many stu- 

 dents of the Universities of 

 Amsterdam and of California, 

 where he lectured for some 

 time, .and the people of 

 the Netherlands by whom 

 he is greatly beloved, in wishing Hugo De Vries in his 

 own native tongue a "Nog vele gelukkige en voorspoedige 

 jaren sij U toegewenscht." 



Patch of Evening Primrose in Holland, where De Vries discovered 

 mutation, showing mutant in foreground. 



