r 



ON THE ORIGIN OF NEW SPECIES 



in horticulture and garden culture in relation 

 to the improvement of the species, and it was 

 accepted that the species had been produced 

 in a similar way. At that time we were 

 unacquainted with the results of sowing on 

 such a scale as that of Burbank, and we 

 imagined that the results could be reached 

 only by repeated selections. However, it is 

 clear that this view would lose a great deal 

 of its meaning if by experiments upon a large 

 scale the variability could be reached at once; 

 that which we imagined previously could be 

 reached only by slow degrees." 



Dr. de Vries again mentions the fact that 

 the scale of Mr. Burbank's work excels 

 everything that was ever done in the world 

 before, and then describes the production by 

 Mr. Burbank of the new species above referred 

 to, — the primus berry, the first fixed species 

 ever recorded made by man. As is noted 

 elsewhere, Mr. Burbank has produced the 

 mutations or changes which have been consid- 

 ered to have such an important scientific 

 bearing, at will. 



Now that it has been established, despite the 

 dictum of the older scientists, that two variant 



223 



