Genetical studies on aenothera / Bradley moore Davis.

  • Davis, Bradley Moore.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Genetical studies on aenothera / Bradley moore Davis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the type-form of the species. No species of (Enotherci is perhaps so free from suspicion as to its gametic purity. It Stomps can obtain mutations from tested material of the Dutch biennis grown in pure lines he will have the basis of a strong argument, but this seems to me lacking in the conclusions drawn from his cross of biennis with cruciata. I do not believe it at all probable that the Dutch biennis will be found to “mutate” under normal conditions to a degree worthy of serious consideration for the mutation theory of De Vries. The plant has already been made the subject of extensive cultures and its characters are known to a number of workers with oenotlieras. Yet I am far from taking the stand that environmental condi- tions may never induce a modification of germinal con- stitution and still leave the organism vigorous. The possibility of direct modification of germ plasm, inde- pendent of sexual mixing, presents one of the most in- viting fields of genetical research. However, if such re- search gives affirmative conclusions we should be most cautious in applying them to the conditions that normally surround a species and to the process of organic evolu- tion. 6. The Problem of the Origin- of (Enotherci Lamarckiana De Vries As stated in the introduction to this paper, we are no longer in our problem of the origin of (Enothera La- marckiana De Vries concerned with Lamarck’s plant {CE. Lamarckiana Seringe, 1828) of about 1796. This plant (Davis, T2b) was with little doubt a form of CE. grandiflora Solander, 1789, introduced at Kew in 1778. It had no relation to the cultures of Carter and Company, of about 1860, which were the starting point for the dis- tribution among seedsmen of the plants known in cultiva- tion as Lamarckiana (an incorrect determination of Lindley) from some of which De Vries’s material was derived.