Mutations in Horticulture 611 



the year 1590 from the seeds of the C. majus. 

 Nevertheless this was not asserted by Sprenger, 

 and some doubt as to a possible introduction 

 from elsewhere might arise. If not, then the 

 mutation must have been sudden, occurring 

 without visible preparation and without the ap- 

 pearance of intermediates. 



From the very first, the cut-leaved celandine 

 has been constant from seed. Or at least it has 

 been propagated by seed largely and without 

 dijBficulty. Nothing, however, is known about it 

 in the first few years of its existence. Later 

 careful tests were made by Miller, Rose and 

 others and later by myself, which have shown 

 its stability to be absolute and without rever- 

 sion, and it has probably been so from the begin- 

 ning. The fact of its constancy has led to its 

 specific distinction by Miller, as varieties 

 were in his time universally, and up to the pres- 

 ent time not rarely, though erroneously, be- 

 lieved to be less stable than true species. 



Before leaving the laciniate celandine it is to 

 be noted that in crosses with C. majus it follows 

 the law of Mendel, and for this reason should 

 be considered as a retrograde variety, the more 

 so, as it is also treated as such from a mor- 

 phological point of view by Stahl and others. 



We now come to an enumeration of those 

 cases in which the date of the first appearance 



