AN HISTORIC SPOT FOR STUDENTS 

 OF GENETICS 



J. C. Theodore Uphof 

 Orlando, Florida. 



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THE PRIMROSES OF SPANDERSWOUD 



Figure 5. About 1885 this was a neglected potato field, and here Hugo de Vries dis- 

 covered the mutant form of the Evening Primrose, on which he based his theory of 

 evolution by mutation. Since that time the forest of beech and spruce trees has grown 

 up and nearly wiped out the Oenotheras. In 1921 only a few were left and the shade 

 was so dense that photographs were impossible. The pictures shown here were made 

 in 1908, and as far as known, are the only ones published of this interesting place. 



NOT far from Amsterdam, a road 

 branches off to the westward 

 from the highway between Bus- 

 sum and Hilversum. It leads through 

 sandy fields and pine forests to the 

 region of the lakes of Ankeveen. 

 Passing through the old Dutch private 

 estates of Swanenburg and Boeken- 

 stein, surrounded with beautiful gar- 

 dens and woods, the traveller reaches 

 Spanderswoud, one of the largest es- 

 tates in that part of the country. It 

 was here in 1886 that Hugo de Vries 

 found the first mutating Oenotheras, 

 which were so important in the up- 

 building of his theory of mutation. 



According to de Vries, the Oenoth- 

 eras were found in a neglected potato 

 field, where they grew abundantly. The 

 writer visited this place repeatedly be- 

 tween 1904 and 1908 and found it 

 largely covered with a mixed forest 

 of beech (Fagits sylvatica) and spruce 

 {Pice a excdsa). The forest was about 

 fifteen years old, but some patches of 

 OenotJicra lamarkiana were still to be 

 found in the open places. 



Among the several thousand plants 

 of the mother species there were but 

 few of the forms to which de Vries 

 gave the name O. nanella. In the au- 

 tumn, when only the leaf rosetts were 



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