Recent Scientific Work in Holland

Abstract

BEGINNING with that which is of most general importance, we draw attention to the recent work of Prof. Hugo de Vries, of Amsterdam. Prof. de Vries, who is well known as a botanist and biologist and whose name is familiar to those acquainted with the history of modern chemistry, has just published the first part of a hook entitled “Die Mutationstheorie. Erster Band. Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Entstehung von Arten im Pflanzenreich” (Leipzig: Veit, 1901), containing, as the title indicates, the account of a series of observations on the formation of new species in plants. Starting from the fact, well known to florists, of the appearance of “single variations” in their flower-beds, de Vries has been trying to find wild flowers which would show the same phenomenon. Of the 100 species investigated only one appeared to possess the property which was looked for, the Œnothera Lamarckiana, originally from America, but at present growing wild in Holland. Now about ten years ago de Vries transferred specimens of this plant to the botanical gardens at Amsterdam, and up to date he has studied as many as 50,000 of its descendants.