IV.] MINUTE MODIFICATIONS. II5 



species being distinct) is by reversion, owing to a supposed 

 ancestral cross. But he candidly admits, "I have heard of 

 no other such case in the animal or vegetable kingdom." 

 On the suj)i)osition of its being only a variety, he observes, 

 "Tlie case is the most remarkable ever recorded of the 

 abnipt appearance of a new form, which so closely re- 

 sembles a true species, that it luis deceived one of the most 

 experienced of living ornithologists." 



As to plants, M. 0. Naudin '" has given the following 

 instances of the sudden origination of apparently perma- 

 nent forms : " The first case mentioned is that of a poppy, 

 which took on a remarkable variation in its fruit — a crown 

 of se(X)ndary cnpsules being ad(k)d to the normal ceniral 

 capsule. A fi(^hl of such ])oppies was grown, and M. G()p- 

 pert, with seed from this field, obtained still this monstrous 

 form in great cpiantity. Deformities of ferns are sometimes 

 sought after by fern-growers. They are now always ob- 

 tained by taking spores from the abnormal parts of the 

 monstrous fern ; from which spores ferns presenting the 

 same peculiarities invariably grow. . . . The most remark- 

 a])le case is that observed by Dr. Godron, of Nancy. In 

 18G1 that botanist observed, among a sowing of Datura 

 tatula^ the fruits of which are very spinous, a single indi- 

 vidual of which the capsule was perfectly smooth. The 

 seeds taken from this plant all furnished plants having the 

 character of this individual. The fifth and sixth generations 

 are now growing without exhibiting the least tendency to 

 revert to the spinous form. More remarkable still, wdien 

 crossed with the normal Datura tatula, hybrids were pro- 

 duced, which, in the second generation, reverted to the 

 original types, as true hybrids do." 



There are, then, al)undant instances to prove that con- 

 siderable modifications may suddenly develop themselves, 



'« Extracted by J. J. Murphy, vol. !., p. lOV, from the Quarterly Jour- 

 nal of Science, of October, 186Y, p. 527. 



