Mutations in Horticulture 609 



ing, the notes being ordinarily made for com- 

 mercial purposes, and often only at the date of 

 introduction into trade, when the preceding 

 stages of the novelty may have been partly for- 

 gotten. 



With this necessary prelude I will now give a 

 condensed survey of the historical facts relat- 

 ing to the origin of new horticultural varieties. 

 An ample description has been given recently 

 by Korshinsky, a Eussian writer, who has 

 brought together considerable historical mate- 

 rial as evidence of the sudden appearance of 

 novelties throughout the whole realm of garden- 

 plants. 



The oldest known, and at the same time one 

 of the most accurately described mutations is 

 the origin of the cut-leaved variety of the 

 greater celandine or Chelidonium majus. This 

 variety has been described either as such, or as 

 a distinct species, called Chelidonium laciniatum 

 Miller. 



It is distinguished from the ordinary species 

 by the leaves being cut into narrow lobes, with 

 almost linear tips, a character which is, as we 

 have seen on a previous occasion, repeated in 

 the petals. It is at present nearly as commonly 

 cultivated in botanical gardens as the C. majus, 

 and has escaped in many localities and is ob- 

 served to thrive as readily as the native wild 



