Dec., 1906.] 
A Successful Mutant of Verbena. 
33 
processes of evolution can be discovered only through series of 
pedigree cultures. The peculiar notion, that species, to be good 
species, must have their origin in the field, or nature’s garden, 
and not in man’s, has come down to us from a previous genera¬ 
tion. This notion with other modes of thought, formulae, and 
assumptions has been so diffused through scientific thought and 
literature that it is held by manv as a kind of dogma which if 
logically applied would exclude experimentation entirely as a 
factor in determining the character of evolution and speciation. 
Any mutation which is Mendelian may theoretically give rise 
to a new race under favorable conditions. At the present time 
one may sometimes find two or three species according to the 
systematist among the branches of a single tree. There is, 
therefore, no occasion to waste words as to what is a true species 
or elementary species, nor how great or small a variation must 
be before it may be called a mutation. The real test should be 
as to whether the type breeds true without special selection or 
isolation. Recently the claim has been made by certain natural 
selectionists that it is selection and segregation that makes 
mutants breed true. But deVries’ mutants and the Verbena 
mutant have, so far as anything can be determined by field 
observation, the quality of breeding true, created by or along 
with the original mutation process and not by selection. Per¬ 
haps if I were able to study and test some of the qualities of the 
Verbena mutant by means of definite pedigree cultures, the 
claim would again be made that the method employed was a 
process of selection. Although the Verbena mutant is a decided 
saltation, there is no reason why a similar change should not take 
place in a given locality by a series of very small advances, the 
saltation so to speak, continuing through a number of genera¬ 
tions before again coming to a more or less fixed tvpe. But this 
is outside of the questions raised bv the case in hand. 
The opinion has been commonly held for many years that 
sports, in the old sense of the term, are lost by the swamping 
effect of cross-breeding. But if there are variations which are 
not swamped, selection becomes an unnecessary factor in the 
origin of distinct forms; and the Verbena mutant is a case in 
evidence of a distinct type entirely successful from the beginning. 
This belief that sports are always swamped is, however, largely 
based on assumption. 
Geographical isolation has, recently, also been claimed to be 
the important factor in speciation. The statement that no two 
closely related species or subspecies oceupv the same territory 
or even the same habitat certainly appears ill-founded to any¬ 
one acquainted with the distribution of plants In many cases, 
according to Britton’s Manual, the variety has the range of the 
type and this is true for species where the habitat is of a uniform 
