144 THE THEORY OF MUTATION 



the battle of life than 0. Lamarckiana, and only reached 

 the flowering stage by the help of careful cultivation, 

 and others, again, were never got to flower at all. 

 Some of the latter, however, were readily distinguish- 

 able by the strikingly original types of radical leaves 

 which they exhibited. 



When they had once made their appearance, the 

 majority of the new types came true to seed. Some- 

 times new mutations appeared among their offspring, 

 but these always appeared in smaller numbers than 

 among the offspring of the parent 0. Lamarckiana, and 

 some of the commoner mutations were usually omitted, 

 so that it appeared as if the process of mutation was 

 accompanied by a tendency towards a fresh stability. 

 Some of the most marked new forms came quite true 

 so far as the observations were carried. 



Speaking generally, the nature of the differences 

 which distinguished the new forms from the parental 

 species was just of the same type as that of those which 

 distinguish Jordan's species when found in nature. 

 The differences were not, as a rule, of the sort shown 

 when new garden varieties arise as sports. An example 

 of this latter kind occurred, however, in the case of the 

 new form 0. nanella, which was a dwarf or permanently 

 stunted form, but in other respects closely resembled 

 the parent type. Apart from this, the new forms 

 appeared to be given off quite at random, without 

 showing any definite tendency towards progress in a 

 particular direction. One of the new species was 

 almost sterile as far as its ovules were concerned, 

 though producing good pollen, whilst in another the 



