170 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 10,02. 



his "Origin of Species" he showed how by natural selection; 

 the slight variations normally occurring in nature would be 

 magnified until, in the course of ages, several distinct species 

 would result from a single ancestor and differ from that ancestor 

 even more than they differ among themselves. Several instances 

 showing how extensive may be the variations in a single wild 

 species have been given by Wallace in his book entitled "Dar- 

 winism." Such differences among individuals of a species 

 in a state of nature are much commoner than the indifferent 

 observer would believe, but are well known to those who, in 

 studying carefully small groups of either plants or animals, 

 have been brought in contact with large numbers of individuals 

 of the same species. Within recent years the results of several 

 such studies of variations have appeared in the scientific period- 

 icals and the main purpose of this article is to present in tabular 

 form the size and color variations found in a number of indi- 

 viduals of the common white trillium or large-flowered wake- 

 robin. 



The tendency of Trillium grandiftorum to exhibit variations 

 of the sort known as phyllody. or the reversion of flower parts 

 to leaves, is well known to botanists. Professor Charles A. 

 Davis read a paper on the subject at the meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science in 1897 and 

 exhibited a large number of specimens collected in Michigan. 

 Mrs. L. L. Goodrich, a well-known botanist of Syracuse, has 

 studied the same phenomenon at considerable length and has 

 found that the variations persist even after removal of the plants 

 to a suitable place in the garden. The results of part of her work 

 were very briefly and unostentatiously noted a few years ago in 

 "Meehan's Monthly." The occurrence of the same phenomenon 

 in other localities has occasionally been brought to the notice 

 of some scientific society so that the present account can lay no 

 claim to novelty. However, it is thought worth while to record 

 in permanent form the actual measurements of various parts 

 of a series of plants exhibiting different degrees of this sort of 

 variation, which, as soon as it materially affects the essential 

 organs of the plant, namely the stamens and pistils, prevents 

 the formation of seed by the plant. This of course stops the 

 direct propagation of the more abnormal forms by the method 

 of seed selection. It is conceivable, however, that such forms 



