I 



(tt AMERICAN BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION. 



of vegetative reproduction, but the number which are the result of 

 mutations and of the crossing of the products of mutations which 

 have arisen in gardens, is enormous. If the mutation theory holds for 

 plants and animals in a state of nature, and this appears daily the 

 more probable, then mutation is the basis for the origin of every 

 permanent variety or strain. In nature, mutations have been pre- 

 served because they were adapted to the life conditions in which they 

 originated; in the garden they have been preserved because they 

 pleased the eye of man or promised to minister to his wants or needs. 



As a typical instance of the utilization of mutations in the produc- 

 tion of valuable modifications in an otherwise comparatively worthless 

 plant, take the little red poppy of the English cornfields, known to 

 the botanist as Papaver rliceas. Until 1882 this plant had received 

 little attention from the horticulturist. Few and slight variations 

 had doubtless been observed, but the form, size, and color of the flowers 

 were fairly constant as still seen to-day in the uncultivated specimens 

 growing abundantly as weeds in the English fields. A quarter of a 

 century ago a mutational change in the color of the flowers of one 

 of these little poppies attracted the notice of Eev. W. Wilks, the pres- 

 secretary of the Eoyal Horticultural Society. He removed the 



int to his garden and raised numerous seedlings from it. Without 

 crossing with any other species he developed in a very few years the 

 beautiful Shirley poppy with all its numerous color variations, rang- 



.g from the intense red with a black cross in the center as seen in 

 ;he original wild form, through shades of red and pink to salmon and 

 white and nearly sky-blue with a white or black cross, or a black cross 

 margined with white, or no cross at all, with the petals margined with 

 red, white, or blue, and often with the most delicate shadings, vein- 

 ings and stripings. Owing to the methods used in the development of 

 the Shirley poppy, many of the steps are not as well known as would 

 be desirable, but the fact that none of the new qualities were brought 

 in by hybridization leaves all to be explained by mutation. 



Other equally impressive examples of the myriad forms that may 

 arise in this way are seen in stocks, sweetpeas, and garden beans, and 

 out of your own knowledge you may add many more quite as typical. 

 These instances are typical of all the familiar cases not only in that 

 they represent the production of numerous new constant forms with- 

 out hybridization, but also because they agree with the general ex- 

 perience that the sports that have been used as the starting points of 

 new strains have been those that had to do with some large and strik- 

 ing character, such as color of the flowers, cut or color of the leaves, 

 habit of branching, etc. In other words, these striking variations 

 have been observed and utilized in the formation of new strains not 

 so much because they were sought for and found, but because they 

 could not be overlooked. 



In all such cases the individual plants stand out with such promi- 

 nence that seed of the mutant is likely to be saved apart from the 

 seeds of the parental form, thus leading to its rapid segregation. 

 Some recent results of breeding show that mutation is just as preva- 



