K.— BOTANY. 211 



While on the question of essential oils I may refer in passing to that 

 peculiar and elusive subject, the loss of scent of the common Musk, 

 Minmlus moschatus Dougl. I fear there must be some here who have 

 never smelt musk, but I well remember its characteristic odour and how 

 it was grown in pots in almost every cottage in the country, as it was 

 reputed to keep away flies. As some of you will recollect, musk quite 

 suddenly lost its scent a few years before the war, and apparently, though 

 unfortunately we have no exact records, the loss of scent was universaL 

 Despite repeated efforts no scented musk has since been found, though 

 often reported, nor can I get material or seed from Western N. America — ■ 

 the home of the plant — with any trace of the characteristic scent. The 

 plant was introduced to cultivation by David Douglas in 1826, and as far 

 as we know all the wild native plants had the characteristic scent."" What 

 has happened ? Is the musk plant now grown exactly the same as the old 

 scented plant, and if so why did all the plants in cultivation as well as 

 those growing wild in British Columbia, almost simultaneously as it would 

 seem, lose their scent. Is this to be regarded as a sudden and universal 

 mutation, and if we assume this, how much nearer are we to an explana- 

 tion ? It would seem a problem worthy of the attention of the ecologist 

 and chemist to attempt, by cultivating the plant in different soils and under 

 diverse conditions, to try and regain the musk scent. 



When we turn our attention to cultivated plants, the innumerable 

 forms and varieties that have arisen in the course of cultivation are almost 

 bewildering. I need only instance such plants as maize, the ground nut 

 [Arachis hypogcea), Voandzeia or Ricinus. the castor oil, whose seeds 

 furnish so remarkable a series of colour and pattern-forms and sizes, 

 constant for each of the many cultivated races. 



Or again, I may remind you of the various races or 'cultiforms ' derived 

 from Brassica oleracea ; cultivation during long ages has resulted in our 

 cabbages, brussel-sprouts, kohl-rabi, cauliflowers and various types of kale. 

 Other striking examples of mutations which have appeared in cultivation, 

 without any possibility of inter-specific hybridisation, are afforded by 

 such well-known ' garden ' plants as Cyclamen persicum (C. indicum), 

 Primula obconica, P. malacoides, P. effusa and our own primrose, P. veris. 

 Not only have the plants under cultivation quickly become more robust 

 and the size of flowers greatly enlarged, but marked changes have taken 

 place in the colour and form of the flowers, while fimbriation of the corolla 

 segments and doubling of the flowers has also taken place in the course 

 of a few years. In cyclamen and in the primrose remarkable crestings 



-" Mr. W. B. Anderson of Victoria, British Columbia, who is an authority on the 

 British Columbian flora, informs me, in a letter received in July through the Lieut. - 

 Governor, that he noticed the loss of scent in the native musk plants in British 

 Columbia a good many years ago, before he was aware of what had happened in 

 Great Britain. Years ago at Millstream, where Musk was indigenous, all the plants 

 were scented. Many years later at Comox, where it grows abundantly, a scented plant 

 could not be found. Since then Mr. Anderson has failed to find scented musk plants 

 anywhere in British Columbia. The Millstream locality was far away from any habita- 

 tion and the scented plants could not have been introduced and were as stronglj- 

 scented as those growing elsewhere. It seems clear, therefore, that the remarkable 

 phenomenon noticed in Great Britain also occurred in British Columbia, the native 

 home of Mimulus moschatus, since very careful search for many years has failed to 

 reveal any scented plants where formerly they were abundant. 



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