106 DARWINISM AND HUMAN LIFE 



The greatest contribution in this connection is 

 Bateson's work entitled, " Materials for the Study 

 of Variation/' which showed that discontinuous 

 variations of certain kinds are not uncommon. 

 Abundant evidence is given of " the existence of 

 sudden and discontinuous variation ; the existence, 

 that is to say, of new forms having from their first 

 beginning more or less of the kind of perfection 

 that we associate with normality." 



MUTATIONS. The idea that the Proteus may 

 leap as well as creep is prominent in the work of 

 the Dutch botanist De Vries, embodied in his 

 " Mutations-Theorie." De Vries tells the story, for 

 instance, of a stock of the evening primrose 

 ((Enothera lamarckiana], which he found as an 

 escape in a potato-field near Amsterdam. It was, 

 as it were, frolicking in its freedom ; " sporting," as 

 we say. Almost all its organs were varying, as 

 if swayed by a restless, internal tide. It showed 

 minute fluctuations from generation to generation ; 

 it showed extraordinary freaks, such as fasciation 

 and, pitcher-forming ; it showed hesitancy as to 

 how long it meant to live, for while most were 

 biennial, many were annual, and a few were 



Lennial ; best of all, it showed what seemed like 



iw species in the making. From this stock De 

 Vries obtained, in a short time, half a dozen or more 

 distinct varieties or elementary species, breeding 

 true generation after generation. He was led to 

 the important conclusion that " new varieties are 

 produced from existing forms by sudden leaps." 



1 It is unfortunate that nothing certain is known as to the origin 

 of (Enothera lamarckiana, which has been in cultivation for a 

 long time. It is possible that its " mutations " result from the 

 impurity of the stock, As Prof. S, J. Holmes says, in an interesting 



