558 Mutations 



I. The first law is, that new elementary spe- 

 cies appear suddenly, without intermediate 

 steps. 



This is a striking point, and the one that is in 

 the most immediate contradiction to current 

 scientific belief. The ordinary conception as- 

 sumes very slow changes, in fact so slow that 

 centuries are supposed to be required to make 

 the differences appreciable. If this were true, 

 all chance of ever seeing a new species arise 

 would be hopelessly small. Fortunately the 

 evening-primroses exhibit contrary tendencies. 

 One of the great points of pedigree-culture is the 

 fact that the ancestors of every mutant have 

 been controlled and recorded. Those of the last 

 year have seven generations of known Lamarck- 

 iana-parents preceding them. If there had been 

 any visible preparation towards the coming mu- 

 tation, it could not have escaped observation. 

 Moreover, if visible preparation were the rule, 

 it could hardly go on at the same time and in the 

 same individuals in five or six diverging direc- 

 tions, producing from one parent, gigas and na- 

 nella, lata and rubrinervis, oblonga and albida 

 and even scintillans. 



On the other hand the mutants, that constitute 

 the first representatives of their race, exhibit 

 all the attributes of the new type in full display 

 at once. No series of generations, no selection, 



