244 Influence of Environment on Plants 
still retain it, after vegetative propagation, in varying degrees. The 
same character occurs also in some of the seedlings; but anything 
approaching a constant race has not been produced. 
Another means of producing new races has been attempted by 
Blaringhem'. On removing at an early stage the main shoots of 
different plants he observed various abnormalities in the newly 
formed basal shoots. From the seeds of such plants he obtained 
races, a large percentage of which exhibited these abnormalities. 
Starting from a male Maize plant with a fasciated inflorescence, on 
which a proportion of the flowers had become male, a new race was 
bred in which hermaphrodite flowers were frequently produced. In 
the same way Blaringhem obtained, among other similar results, a 
race of barley with branched ears. These races, however, behaved 
in essentials like those which have been demonstrated by de Vries to 
be inconstant, eg. Trifolium pratense quinquefoliwm and others. 
The abnormality appears in a proportion of the individuals and only 
under very special conditions. It must be remembered too that. 
Blaringhem worked with old cultivated plants, which from the first 
had been disposed to split into a great variety of races. It is possible, 
but difficult to prove, that injury contributed to this result. 
A third method has been adopted by MacDougal? who injected 
strong (10°/,) sugar solution or weak solutions of calcium nitrate and 
zinc sulphate into young carpels of different plants. From the seeds 
of a plant of Ratmannia odorata the carpels of which had been thus 
treated he obtained several plants distinguished from the parent- 
forms by the absence of hairs and by distinct forms of leaves. 
Further examination showed that he had here to do with a new ele- 
mentary species. MacDougal also obtained a more or less distinct 
mutant of Oenothera biennis. We cannot as yet form an opinion as 
to how far the effect is due to the wound or to the injection of fluid 
as such, or to its chemical properties. This, however, is not so 
essential as to decide whether the mutant stands in any relation 
to the influence of external factors. It is at any rate very 
important that this kind of investigation should be carried further. 
If it could be shown that new and inherited races were ob- 
tained by MacDougal’s method, it would be safe to conclude that the 
same end might be gained by altering the conditions of the food-stuff 
conducted to the sexual cells. New races or elementary species, how- 
ever, arise without wounding or injection. This at once raises the much 
discussed question, how far garden-cultivation has led to the creation 
of new races? Contrary to the opinion expressed by Darwin and 
1 Blaringhem, Mutation et Traumatisme, Paris, 1907. 
® MacDongal, “‘ Heredity and Origin of species,” Monist, 1906; “ Report of department of 
botanical research,” Fifth Year-book of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, p. 119, 1907. 
