408 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



at this time, for she read aloud excellently, and she not only 

 took an interest in my theoretical and experimental work, 

 but she also gave practical assistance in it." 



In 1893 he published The Germ-Plasm, A Theory 0) 

 Heredity ', a treatise which elicited much discussion. From 

 that time on he has been actively engaged in replying to his 

 critics and in perfecting his system of thought. 



The Mutation-Theory of De Vries.— Hugo de Vries 

 (Fig. 115), director of the Botanical Garden in Amsterdam, 

 has experimented widely with plants, especially the evening 

 primrose (Oenothera Lamarckiana) , and has shown that dif- 

 ferent species appear to rise suddenly. The sudden variations 

 that breed true, and thus give rise to new forms, he calls mu- 

 tations, and this indicates the source of the name applied to 

 his theory. 



In his Die Mutationstheorie, published in 1901, he argues 

 for the recognition of mutations as the universal source of 

 the origin of species. Although he evokes natural selection 

 for the perpetuation and improvement of variations, and 

 points out that his theory is not antagonistic to that of natural 

 selection, it is nevertheless directlv at variance with Darwin's 

 fundamental conception — that slight individual variations 

 "are probably the sole differences which are effective in the 

 production of new species" and that "as natural selection 

 acts solely by accumulating slight, successive, favorable 

 variations, it can produce no great or sudden modifications." 

 The foundation of De Vries's theory is that "species have 

 not arisen through gradual selection, continued for hundreds 

 or thousands of years, but by jumps through sudden, through 

 small transformations." (Whitman's translation.) 



The work of De Vries is a most important contribution 

 to the study of the origin of species, and is indicative of the 

 fact that many factors must be taken into consideration when 

 one attempts to analyze the process of organic evolution. 

 One great value of his work is that it is based on experiments, 



