lieve, however, that the examples already given are sufficient to show the im- 

 portance of this phenomenon in the work for the improvement of flowers. 



With ornamental plants the selection and propagation of bud mutations has 

 provided a large number of valuable varieties for cultivation. 



The Euonymus varieties are amongst the most valuable and widely grown of 

 all ornamental plants. Carriere (8) calls attention to five bud varieties of 

 E. Japonica, viz., argentea, aurea, flavida, fasciata, and calamistrata, and states 

 that many other varieties which differ in variegation or sometimes by the form of 

 leaves have been produced by the selection and propagation of bud mutations. 



Roeding (46), one of the leading plant propagators in California, propagates 

 and distributes the following varieties of E. Japonic a which he personally told the 

 writer in August, 1919, were originated from bud mutations: Albo-marginata 

 (silver-margined), albo-variegata (^silver- variegated), aureo-variegata (golden- 

 variegated), coiumnaris (tall-growing), viridi-variegata (Due d'Anjou), aureo- 

 marginata (golden-margined), and niicrophylla (dwarf form). The writer 

 recently has found all of these variations occurring as bud mutations in Euony- 

 mus plants growing in the vicinity of Riverside, an example of which is shown 

 in Plate 4, and has complete evidence as to the origin of the above mentioned 

 cultivated varieties from bud variations. 



Pittosporum varieties are now widely grown as ornamental lawn plants and 

 for shrubbery. They rank in importance in this respect with the Euonymus 

 varieties. Carriere (8) mentions that P. Tobira variegatum originated from 

 P. Tobira as a bud mutation. This variegated-leaved variety is one of the most 

 popular ones in California and has been repeatedly found by the writer (52) 

 occurring as bud mutations in the green-leaved parental form. Other mutations 

 of P. Tobira, differing in leaf-form and variegation, have- been observed by the 

 writer in plants growing in the vicinity of Riverside, California, an example of 

 which is shown in Plate 5. Some of these have been isolated through bud selec- 

 tion and are now being cultivated to an increasing extent, an illustration of which 

 is shown in Plate 6. 



In Coleus, Stout (70) found that bud variations are common and give rise 

 to numerous different types which may be quite constant from the first or can be 

 made so by selection. In pedigree cultures he isolated 15 distinct varieties through 

 bud selection which were characteristically different in color patterns. He con- 

 cludes from his investigations that in Coleus asexual and sexual reproduction 

 are not fundamentally different in respect to the extent and range of variation. 



In ferns, Boshnakian (6) states that in the common Boston fern (Nephro- 

 lepis ex alt at a bostoniensis) over 65 commercial varieties have originated as bud 

 mutations since 1898. 



In the Oleander (Nerium oleander), one of the oldest of cultivated orna- 

 mental plants, the writer found in 1918 near Thermal, California, a branch bud 

 mutation having variegated leaves borne by green-leaved plants, as shown in 

 Plate 7, and uniformly variegated plants which had been propagated from similar 

 mutations. 



