Mutations 85 



The next (fourth) generation contained about twenty 

 plants having only one peloric flower among them. The 

 plant bearing this flower, and one other plant, were saved 

 and all others discarded. These two were bred together 

 and produced a considerable quantity of seed. 



In the next year (1894) fifty plants were in flower. 

 Eleven of these were found to bear the normal number 

 of peloric flowers. In addition to these eleven, there was 

 found one plant which bore peloric flowers only. This 

 was a mutation. Its appearance had been observed. It 

 was found to breed true in future generations. 



In regard to the production of this mutation, de Vries 

 says, "Here we have the first experimental mutation of 

 a normal into a peloric race. The facts were clear and 

 simple : First, the ancestry was known for over a period 

 of four generations. This ancestry was quite constant 

 as to the peloric peculiarity remaining true to the wild 

 type as it occurs everywhere in any country and showing 

 in no respect any tendency to the production of a new 

 variety. 



" Second, the mutation took place at once. It was a 

 sudden leap from the normal plants with very rare peloric 

 flowers to a type exclusively peloric. The parents them- 

 selves had borne thousands of flowers during two sum- 

 mers, and these were inspected nearly every day in the 

 hope of finding some peloric and of saving their seed 

 separately. Only one such flower was seen. There was 

 no visible preparation for this sudden leap. 



"This leap, on the other hand, was full and complete. 

 No reminiscence of the former condition remained. Not 

 a single flower on the mutated plant reverted to the 



