It is needless to say that it would be difficult to undertake any 

 experimental investigations involving the consideration of the 

 status of species without running counter to the convictions and 

 prejudices of a considerable number of systematists. Indeed, but 

 few botanists are prepared to assign specific rank to any indi- 

 vidual or group of individuals which have been observed to 

 descend from a group of forms constituting a separate species. 

 A somewhat more considerable number accept self-perpetuating 

 hybrids as species, although it is doubtful whether this attitude 

 may become universal. To this greater majority of systematists 

 then the entire matter of origin of species by sports, single varia- 

 tions, or by mutation is entirely out of court. Single variations 

 or sports are known to occur, however, and new species have 

 suddenly appeared in many well-authenticated instances as the 

 records of the last two hundred years show, and the possibility 

 that many of the commonest forms around us may have origi- 

 nated in this very manner should make even the rashest thought- 

 ful and willing to give the evidence an impartial examination. 



It will be of interest to recall the origin of Chelidonium lacini- 

 atum and Capsella Heegeri Solms in this connection, the history 

 of which began nearly three hundred years apart. Sprenger, an 

 apothecary in Heidelberg, discovered in his medicinal garden in 

 which Chelidonium majus was cultivated a new form of Cheli- 

 donium with divided leaves and laciniate petals. Specimens were 

 submitted to a number of botanists at that time to whom it was 

 unknown. The new species was found to be self-sustaining and 

 in repeated cultural tests has shown no tendency to revert to C. 

 majus. Furthermore, during the next three centuries it has 

 never been seen except in gardens or in localities where it had 

 clearly escaped from cultivation. Evidence of such conclusiveness 

 would be held worth a human life in criminal proceedings in a 

 court of law. A new species of Capsella was found by Professor 

 Heeger at Landau in 1897 which apparently arose from a culture 

 of Capsella Bursa-pastoris. This species was so distinct as to be 

 assigned to the genus Camelina upon a first examination by 

 Solms-Laubach.* Later, however, its true position was found. 



* Solms-Laubach. Crucifereenstudien. Bot. Zeitung, 58 : 167. 1900. 



