0) 



DARWIN AND DE VRIES 



Dutch Naturalist at Lowell Lecture Says 

 They Differ in Only One Point— Tells 

 How He Makes New Kinds of Flowers 

 and Doubles Single Ones 



his own. Here his attitude was fas ilil- 

 ferent from those who have in recent years 

 expressed little respect for the views of the 

 great English naturalist. "In the main 

 points," he said "there is no difference be- 

 tween us at aJl. Darwin helieved tliat spe- 

 cies were evolved one from another by 

 small changes. The observations that I 

 iiare been able to make point to sudden 

 establishment of new species." This was 

 the text of the lecture and Its illustrations, 

 and the suggestion was made that botanical 

 Species are usually not pure. When this is 

 (be case there is constant tendency fbr one 

 or another or the elements to gain the 

 ascendency and dominaite the species. 



There was quite a >bit about Darwin in 

 the" earlier part of the lecture which showed 

 WihV some^of his ideas established them- 

 selves^ Be was a great collector of facts, 



:oLlect spe 



known to 1 

 sideraible ps 

 that of isla 

 coast, He 

 relatives, on 

 land. ' Fro: 

 tions of the spe. 



this 



l ng islands or the main- 

 * established his" rela- 

 He studied races and 



ppocles and fotmd that the limits between 

 speclEs are arbitrary; there is no such dis- 

 tinction in nature. 



The speaker outlined the earlier condi- 

 tion of the farmer, who, finding good wheat 

 in his crop, selected the best for planting 

 next year. It has been possible to im- 

 prove the grain to an extent and after ten 

 or perhaps twenty years a permanent 

 change may be made. This was a tedious 

 process, but it was about as far as agri- 

 culture had gone. In horticulture a similar 

 process was.-possible in shorter" timer four 

 or Ave years*. Today in" the study of the 

 matter, , pure strains are possible which 

 Darwin did not know about.' 



The. speaker then turned to the experi- 

 ments of Nielsen, a Swede, who found that 

 the slow Darwinian evolution did not suit 

 the facts, and a new explanation was neces- 

 sary. He pursued th,e general idea of agri- 

 cultural selection of seeds, 'but used closet- 

 observation and brought the microscope 

 Into requisition so that selected seeds might 



even have the same boti 

 found in doing this fhs 

 with the single ear th£ 

 seed from in the future, c 

 species. The usual ear 

 In it many types and the 

 strains' Consists of elirn 

 It Is ..evident that what ; 

 na'tunf liiffy consist of 



spec: 



Ho 



ilej- his eyes. The first story Was about 

 the toadflax. This in general Is a flower 

 having- two flajps or jaws, , within wihich the 

 hep, must pass to get at the honey in a 

 STeep* lower sptir. and in doing Which ha 

 nolinafes the flower. It was known to Lin,, 

 haeus'that.i'n the neighborhood of Upsala a 

 close variety originated. Every eight or 

 ten years some such observation was made 

 elsewhere, and on these occasions there 

 came suddenly into prominence a form of 

 flower which normally was known only 

 once in five to ten thousand (lowers, it was 

 »ecn thus in Germany and in Holland. It 

 nas this phenomenon that DeVries set out 

 10 repeat In his garden. The (lowers are 

 very different in appearance. One had the 

 two lips, between which insects could easily 

 f jies, while the other was a closed form 

 Which was impossible to them. For eight 

 years the Dutch investigator worked, when 

 there came a form in his group of the 

 closed . flowers and this was not by inter- 

 gia'dations but at once, and it is perma- 

 nent.; . ."•] ' >.v .m i v 



A second experiment was witli twisted 

 plants. In "various kinds, horsetails and 

 tcasles among them, there come occa- 

 sional!}- forms that a're twisted. The leaves 

 (hat may normally be disposed at regular in- 

 tervals, single or in groups, may combine to 

 form a continuous spiral fringe about the 

 stem. Dc-Vries set out 'to make a twisted 

 snapdragon. He selected this kind of | 

 plant because there is known to be some 



h the 



i a normal 

 petals the 



1 number of 

 Much of th 

 which the nc 



' petals 

 petals 



the (lowers. 



The lecture of Monday afternjc 

 lake up' horticultural variations ai 

 come to his oWh work in the signiflei 

 mutations for the origin of species. 



WORLD DOOMED TOSTARVE 



Professor DeVries in Lowell Lecture Says 

 This Will Happen Unless Agriculture Can 

 Save It— Population Will Overtake Food 

 Supply ^-<JU J J?<^. 



The importance of botanical researches 

 of the kind in which he has made a name 

 for himself was shown last evening by 

 Professor Hugo DeVries in his second 

 Ijowell Institute lecture on "The Evolu- 

 tion of Plants." "The future of the hu- 

 man race," he said, "will depend upon new 

 foodstuffs for those now known will not 

 suffice to support it." He stated that the 

 increase in population, if continued at its 

 present rate, would more than overtake 

 the increase in food production at Its 

 present rate, and the time in which distress 

 might come is not very far away, a cen- 

 tury or two, perhaps. There would under 

 those circumstances* be really a struggle 

 for life. The resources of the earth are 

 being quickly consumed, coal is almost 

 exhausted, the forests are fast disappear- 

 ing and agricultural work, if it is to save 

 the day, must be greatly improved. 



In the t'nited States about one-quarter 

 of the soil is under cultivation, and for the 

 rest there are the difficulties of deserts 

 and of irrigation. "If it were possible to 

 grow things in the desert world," said the 

 speaker, "it would be very desirable. At 

 any rate, it is the agriculture that is In the 

 foreground of public needs." 



Hybridizing is a means of getting deslr- 

 aible qualities scattered through different 

 species assembled in one race. The best 

 of horticulturalists apply this principle. 

 But in selection there is a comparatively 

 small number of factors with which to 

 make improvements, and in hybridizing 

 there are' a small number of known quali- 

 ties to assemble, so that one can realize 

 that there is a comparatively near limit to 

 improvement due to either or both these 

 methods. Future populations may de- 

 mand all that both means have to offer. It 

 is not to the point to argue that two or 

 three hundred years is a long ways ahead 

 and is not our concern. It is the duty of 

 science to foresee necessities and provide 

 satisfying them. It is the duty 



of the present dwell 

 reel his eyes 

 and wihait it i 

 thi 



•th to di- 



■hat nature has done 

 doing and to try to duplicate : 



speaker s 

 jpecies, termed 

 i0 that by the - 

 hat he 



due 



mi tat 



it i 



ggested that the leaps in 

 mtations. must be studied 

 ill of man and the forces 

 rol he may be ahle to in- 

 ons. This has been done 

 ?, but only in a few lines, 

 d in many lines, and there 

 or the future, 

 ssion for the day was of 

 or, rather, its allies, 



