Plant-breeding; comments on the experiments of Nilsson and Burbank . introduced into European garden-culture, about the mid-dle of the last century, by a nurseryman in London, whoreceived the seed, without name and in a mixed packet, cul-tivated and multiphed it and sold it to the leading firms onthe continent. Ah the strains derived from this scourceshow the same phenomena of mutability, as far as my experi-ments go. \Vhere the species is growing in America in thewild condition, is not known, at present, and so it is impossibleto decide whether it has acciuired the habit of mutating inthat co
Plant-breeding; comments on the experiments of Nilsson and Burbank . introduced into European garden-culture, about the mid-dle of the last century, by a nurseryman in London, whoreceived the seed, without name and in a mixed packet, cul-tivated and multiphed it and sold it to the leading firms onthe continent. Ah the strains derived from this scourceshow the same phenomena of mutability, as far as my experi-ments go. \Vhere the species is growing in America in thewild condition, is not known, at present, and so it is impossibleto decide whether it has acciuired the habit of mutating inthat condition or upon its introduction into European culture. Twenty years ago, I found this species on a waste fieldnear Hilversum, in Holland, where it had escaped from culti-vation and was rapidly multiplying itself. Here it had pro-duced two new and distinct varieties which, up to the presenttime, have not been collected or observed elsewhere. Oneof them had smooth leaves, lacking the bubbles of the ordi-nary form; it was a fine type with narrower leaves and petals,. Fig. 6. Leaves of Lamarcks Evening-primrose (A), and of two of itsmutants. B. Oen. lata. C. Ocn. scintillans. 19 20 PLANT-BREEDING the latter often becoming ovate instead of cordate. Theother had very short styles, the stigma reaching only to themouth of the flower-tube, instead of being Hfted up abovethe anthers. Its ovary is only partly inferior, and it ripensonly very few seeds in its capsules, wliich remain small. Ithas, moreover, some associated characters in its foUage bywhich it may be recognized before the flowering-period. Inmy cultures, both these varieties were found to be constantand pure from seed. Some further mutations ha^•e beenproduced on the same field, but since they were also producedin my experiment-garden, I shall not here mention themseparately. In the year 1886, I collected some seed from the normalplants of this field and sowed them in my garden the nextspring. This culture at once gave a n
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