Reprinted from the BOTANICAL GAZETTE, 52: 480-485, No. 6, December, 1911 



NOTES FOR STUDENTS 



Experiments with maize. Several years ago BLARINGHEM^ published a 

 monograph on his now well known experiments in the production of anomalies 

 in various plants as the result of mutilation. The mutilations forced into 

 development buds which ordinarily remain latent, and the branches produced 

 from these buds frequently possessed characters not recognized as normal 

 features of the plants operated on. In a small percentage of cases the abnor- 

 malities thus brought to light were found to be inherited to a greater or less 

 degree, and the conclusion was reached that mutilation is a very general and 

 easy means of provoking mutability and an important factor in the evolution 

 of vegetable forms. Most of his experiments were made with maize, though 

 some apparently corroboratory evidence was derived from barley (H. distichum 

 and H. tetrastichum) and mustard (Sinapis alba). All of the new characters, 

 abnormal or otherwise, which came to light in his experiments with maize 



^BLARINGHEM, L., Mutation et traumatismes. Etude sur 1'evolution des formes 

 vegetales. pp. 248. pis. 8. Paris: Felix Alcan. 1908. 



480 



