278 CONCLUDING CHAPTER 



0. Lamarckiana in vigour and prolific habit, and two 

 of them actually became established side by side with 

 the parent type without man's assistance. 



It is unfortunate from the point of view of de Vries' 

 interpretation of this case that the behaviour of 

 0. Lamarckiana should suggest in some respects, as 

 Bateson has pointed out, the phenomena of hybridiza- 

 tion. It must be observed in support of de Vries' 

 view that the species appears to exhibit the same 

 phenomenon in other localities, and, further, that it 

 has not been possible to make any suggestion as to the 

 second species with which the pure Lamarckiana might 

 be supposed to have been crossed. 



From one point of view, as de Vries has himself 

 pointed out, mutation in (Enothera is clearly a 

 phenomenon of hybrids, and this circumstance of 

 itself introduces considerable complications into the 

 story. 



We saw just now that there is every reason for the 

 conviction that mutation takes place in the germ- 

 cells, and not in the zygote after fertilization. Since 

 the number of mutants given off under the most 

 favourable circumstances did not exceed 3 per cent, 

 of the total offspring, the enormous majority of mutated 

 germ-cells (on de Vries' view) must unite with germ- 

 cells bearing the ordinary specific character. Conse- 

 quently, the new types which appear will in most cases 

 have originated in the form of a cross between a mutated 

 germ-cell and an ordinary germ-cell. And since this 

 is not the final limit to the possible complications of the 

 case, we can easily recognise that the complete inter- 



