11. MUTABILITY AND INDIVIDUAL VARIA- 

 TION. 



§ I. THE TRANSMUTATION THEORY BEFORE DARWIN. 



In the introduction to his ''Origin of Species" Dar- 

 win erives a short historical sketch in which he calls 



Fig. I. Papavcr bracteattim monopefalum. 

 A. The detached Corolla. B. The whole flower.^ 



attention to the contributions made by his predecessors 

 to the theory of evolution. Lamarck was the first whose 



* In the cultures of the firm Vilmorin-Andrieux of Paris there 

 are found every year in the plots of Papaver bracteatum single plants 

 whose petals are more or less completely fused. Fig. i is drawn 

 from samples which H. L. de Vilmorin was kind enough to send 



