10 



DR. R. E. GATES — CONTRIBUTION TO A 



difficulties in its application, and judgment will be necessary in deciding each case. 

 The greatest difficulty will probably be in connection with (3), in determining how 

 many years of culture may elapse before a given form must be considered " in culti- 

 varion." It has always been the case, and rightly so, that many species were described 

 by systematists from the growing plants ; and the modern tendency is to describe species 

 as far as possible from their living characters. Obviously, such forms are not to be 

 classed as cultivated species. But when new forms are recognized and segregated 

 after many years of culture they may perhaps fairly be considered as "cultivated" 

 forms. The fact that such species were first recognized in cultures will not, however, 

 justify the assumption that they do not also occur wild. Also, the use of the term, 

 with, e. g., 0. LamarcUana, Ser., does not necessarily mean that the species originated 

 in cultivation, but merely that the material under discussion was derived from a race 

 long in cultivation. Thus, the same species may be referred to in one connection as a 

 wild, and at another time as a cultivated form. 



Similarly, mutations or forms which have originated through germinal changes under 



experimental control, so that the history of their origin is known, should beVeceded 

 by the abbreviation mut. 



The greatest value of the usage suggested above, and, indeed, the reason for this 

 suggestion, lies in the fact that it wiU enable breeders to use the convenient binomial 

 terminology for forms which are in many cases not strictly comparable to wild species, 

 without the danger of their being mistaken for such by systematists. Thus I have in 

 my cultures at the present time numerous forms, some of which have originated through 



yet which breed fairly true and diflPer from each other quite as much as do the 



ordinarily accepted species in many genera, others which differ to a much slip-hte 



extent or even in single characters. Por breeding purposes many of these various 

 races urgently require description and a name by which one can refer to them. Such 

 races should be grouped around the recognized species to which they are most nearly 

 allied. If cult, be written after the names of such races, this will avoid the danger of 

 seriously confusing them with the wild forms, while leaving open the question whether 

 their differences are of specific, varietal, or lesser value. At the same time, this will not 

 relieve systematists from the duty of examining all such descriptions, and according 

 specific rank and treatment to any forms which, by their distinctness, deserve it" 

 regardless of whether they originated in cultivation or elsewhere. 



It wHl be easy to raise numerous objections to tliese suggestions, but it is believed 

 that they will at least serve the purpose of making clearer the status of the many forms 

 which must perforce be described by experimental workers before any permanent record 

 of such experiments can be made. 



The adoption of the term mut. as a designation for mutations whose 

 experimentally known, will, I believe, be particularly useful. 



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