92 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



propagated by seeds. Fultz and Gold Coin wheat were such 

 chance discoveries of mutations reproducing true to seed. Among 

 fruits a large share of our standard varieties were found as acci- 

 dental variations, but here in many cases accidental hybridization 

 is probably responsible for the variation. 



In the scientific literature of plant breeding that has appeared 

 since 1900, we read continuously of mutations, and I sometimes 

 wonder if the practical horticulturists fully understand the new 

 viewpoint on this subject. If they do they are to be congratulated, 

 for the widest divergence of opinion exists among scientific men as 

 to what mutations are and wherein they differ from other variations. 



The term mutation as now used was introduced by the famous 

 Dutch botanist, DeVries, who immortalized the term by the 

 publication of his Mutation Theory of Evolution. The history of 

 plant-breeding is practically the history of evolution and it will be 

 interesting for us to briefly discuss the progress made in this field 

 of research. 



The publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, focused 

 the attention of the scientific and religious world on this subject 

 and led to the establishment of the theory of descent. The funda- 

 mental principle of evolution, according to Darwin, is natural 

 selection. He believed that indiAaduals showing very slight varia- 

 tions, where such variation is of advantage to the species, are 

 selected in nature through the survival of the fittest, and that great 

 changes are finally WTought by the cumulative action of such natural 

 selection. Darwin's great genius and the support of such men as 

 Wallace, Huxley, Haeckel, and others, led to the almost universal 

 acceptance of Darwin's principal proposition of natural selection 

 and the survival of the fittest. Gradually, however, as the heat of 

 the battle passed and men had more time for careful analysis, 

 doubts as to the sufficiency of the theory of natural selection began 

 to arise. It came gradually to be recognized that after all the 

 factor of first importance was the variation itself. Given variation, 

 natural selection would act. Without variation there could be no 

 differences to be selected. Wliat caused the variation ? What 

 variations were important in evolution and why? Darwin was in 

 no sense unmindful of the importance of variations and his investi- 

 gations form the basis of our knowledge of this subject. His main 



