March 18, 1905. 
Gardening World 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“The ambitious botanist sought plants, Orchis and Gentian, Fern and long whip-Scirpus.” Emenon. 
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The following Coloured Plates 
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bers:— 
September 12.— SIX NEW DAFFODILS. ? 
October 3.— LILIUM AURATUM PLA- ( 
TYPHYLLUM SHIRLEY VAR. 
Novembei 14.—ROSE MME. N. LEVA- 
VASSEUR. 
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; ROSE IRENE. \ 
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COUNTESS OF WARWICK. 
> February 27.-A FINE STRAIN OF s 
1 GLOXINIAS. 
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; RUSSELLIANA. ' < 
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< June 4. —CACTUS DAHLIA SPITFIRE. 
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October 1. — GEUM HELDREICHI 
SUPERBUM. 
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This week we present a Half-tone 
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SPARMANNIA AFRICANA. 
Next week we shall give a Half-tone 
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! LILIUM AURATUM. 
I The first prize last week in the 
Readers’ Competition was awarded to 
“T. G.,” for his article on “Hardy *- 
Nymphaeas,” p. 201; and the second 
to “H. Arnold,” for his article on 
“ Culinary Herhs,” p. 200. s 
Views and Reviews. 
Species and Varieties/ 
Some time ago we announced that Pro¬ 
fessor Hugo de Vries had been giving lec¬ 
tures on the origin of species and varieties by 
mutation, and the bulky volume is now on 
our table. It runs to something like 847 
pages, including an index, and is well printed 
in large type, but not illustrated. The book 
contains a vast amount of information looked 
at in quite an original way, and while discuss¬ 
ing a vast number of facts it suggests many 
more, and frequently notifies directions in 
which human knowledge has yet much to 
accomplish in tracing out the various theories 
here promulgated. The professor evidently 
belongs to the same school as Alexis Jordan, 
of Lyons, who named and described a large 
number of micro-species of plants, and, by 
cultivating them for a number of years or 
generations, endeavoured to prove that they 
were more or less decidedly constant in habit 
and structure. These same plants are more or 
less overlooked by a systematic botanist, or 
considered of no importance in the definition 
and limitation of their so-called species. 
The author repeats the statement that 
genera and species, as at present defined, are 
more or less artificial, or consist of conven¬ 
tional groups. Every student of botany who 
goes very deeply into the study of such as 
Roses, Willows, Brambles, etc., very soon 
finds out for liimself how composite every 
so-called species is in those books where they 
are limited to a few species, including an 
immense number of forms spoken of as sub¬ 
species or varieties, according to their value 
as estimated by the authors of such books. 
The author gives a very good hint with re¬ 
gard to this point, and the multiplication of 
names, which cannot afterwards be upheld 
when students go more deeply into the 
subject. 
A botanist may give a diagnosis of a new 
species founded on divergent specimens, and 
when the same group is more deeply studied 
by a botanist of the modern school it is 
difficult or even impossible to retain any one 
of the forms included under the specific name 
given it by tlie older school. These facts led 
*“ Species and Varieties: Their Oiigin by Mutation.” 
Lectures delivered at the Un iversity of California by Hugo 
de Vries, professor of botany in the University of Amsterdam. 
Edited by Daniel Trembley MacDougal, assistant director of 
the New York Botanic Garden. London : Kegan Paul, 
Trench, Triibner & Co., Ltd. 1905. Price 21s. nett. 
a number of botanists to make direct experi¬ 
ments for the purpose of improving the con¬ 
stancy or otherwise of forms. Jordan, above 
mentioned, was one of these systematic 
botanists who made experiments, lout several 
others followed in his footsteps, and, after 
proving the facts for themselves, were con¬ 
vinced of the correctness of the proceeding 
to consider as units or species those forms 
which reproduce themselves true to the 
original when raised from seeds. 
To give some idea of what is meant by 
the above facts we may relate a few instances 
mentioned in this work. Some of tlie plants 
usually accepted as species in systematic 
works are found by experimenters to include 
two or three, twenty, fifty, or even hundreds 
of forms in extreme cases. The author illus¬ 
trates this by tlie Heart’s-ease of gardens, 
which he regards as a hybrid race produced 
by the crossing of Viola tricolor with V. lutea 
and various others, including V. cornuta and 
V. altaica. V. tricolor is a common European 
weed existing in a large number of forms, 
several of which have been described as 
species, and others as varieties. 
Besides the type there is a smaller form 
widely dispersed in this country and known 
as V. arvensis. Speaking from his con¬ 
tinental experience tlie author thinks that 
each of these two occupy their own particular 
districts or localities, and while that may 
be true to some extent, we have difficulty in 
seeing where the line can be drawn. In the 
counties immediately round London V. tri¬ 
color is a very scarce plant in any of its 
larger forms, while V. arvensis is, very evenly 
distributed in fields. In the northern coun¬ 
ties of this island both of these forms may be 
found in the cornfields and by tlie waysides 
indiscriminately. Each, however, main¬ 
tains itself over a very wide range, and keeps 
separate as a rule, though there are forms of 
V. arveusis with the petals longer than the 
sepals, and yet seem to owe none of this 
increased size to V. tricolor itself. The 
latter is by far the most variable in colour, 
blue, white, and yellow, or blue-purple being 
the dominant forms. 
These, however, keep fairly true to their 
respective colours in different districts, and 
that may have a direct bearing upon what 
the professor wishes to say. We can even 
illustrate this fact, by mentioning the blue- 
purple variety of V. lutea, known as V.l. 
amoena. Where it does occur, we have seen 
the grass pastures blue with it without any 
intermixture of the typical pale yellow form. 
Probably the professor would regard it as a 
constant variety if not an incipient species. 
