300 The Pedigree Families. 



MUTANTS ARISING FROM PLANTS OF LAMARCKIANA 

 WHICH HAVE THEMSELVES ARISEN FROM CROSSES. 



Experiments Carried Out in 1898. 



oDr»ocT7vTr- ' T a a NUMBER OF MUTANTS IN 1898 



CROSSINGS IN i»9b SEEDLINGS a/dtda lata nanella oblonga 



Totals 4599 2 7 26 8 



That is, altog,ether 43, or about 1 % of mutants. 



We may sum up by saying that we never find an}^ 

 more than sHght deviations from the original degree of 

 mutabihty exhibited by O. Lamarckiana. It seems to 

 retain this property through all generations and in spite 

 of crossing; at any rate in the course of my experiments. 

 In the new species, on the contrary, this capacity for 

 mutation is modified ; for it is a constant feature of them 

 that their mutability is much diminished. It has, how- 

 ever, not completely disappeared, and the power of giving 

 rise to the same new species as does the parent form has 

 been evidently transmitted to them. 



§ 9. MUTATIONS IN NATURE. 



The object of the experiments in my garden was not 

 to induce mutations, but to make a closer study of the 

 process of mutation than was possible in nature. 



Of course, I regard the induction of mutations as a 

 much bigger problem the solution of which I would 

 gladly have attempted. But I soon saw the necessity of 

 an exliaustive preliminary investigation. An exact knowl- 

 edge of the way in which new species arise in nature 



