Mutation et Traumatismes, Etude sur l'Evolution des Formes végétales

Abstract

ACCORDING to the mutational view of evolution, the kind of variations to the survival of which specific differentiation is due are not such differences between individuals as are always afforded, in any large collection, by fluctuating variability; but variations of an entirely different nature, which de Vries has called mutations. These mutations are not, as repeatedly stated, larger differences than those which are due to fluctuating variability. On the contrary, the differences between the extreme variants of fluctuating variations are often so large that they cannot escape the notice of the most unobservant; whereas the difference between the new types (especially when these are elementary species, and not varieties) which arise by mutation are often so subtle that they can often only be detected by an observer with an intimate familiarity with the species in question.

Mutation et Traumatismes, Etude sur l'Evolution des Formes végétales.

By L. Blaringhem. Pp. 239; 8 plates. (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1908.) Price 10 francs.