New Dimorphic Mutants of the Oenotheras
Year: 1916
Type: article
Abstract: 1. Besides O. scintillans, which splits under ordinary circumstances in every generation into nearly equal groups of plants of the same type and others of the type of O. Lamarckiana, I have cultivated pedigree families of 4 other mutants of O. Lamarckiana which behave in the same manner. They have been designated as O. cana. O. pallescens, O. Lactuca, and O. liquida. Their Lamarckiana-like offspring are constant in their progeny. Besides the two main types, they produce, as a rule, a relatively high percentage of other mutants. 2. The specimens of the parental type are on the average produced in about 40 per cent, the other 60 per cent being Lamarckiana with some mutants; but these figures vary with the cultures and with the plants according to their individual strength. They may even increase, on very strong biennials, to 93-97 per cent for the parental type. 3. Dimorphic mutants of this type occur also in allied species of the biennis group, as has been discovered by Bartlett in the case of O. stenomeres mut. lasiopetala and described in this article for O. biennis Chicago mut. saligna. 4. In the crosses with older species or with O. Lamarckiana and its derivatives, O. cana follows exactly the type of the analogous crosses of O. scintillans and O. lata. 5. In the dimorphic mutants, the special characters are handed down to the next generation through the ovules only. The pollen lacks these characters, and is, so far as investigated, not different from that of pure O. Lamarckiana. 6. The dimorphic mutants constitute a group in which the hereditary phenomena are evidently independent of the externally visible characters of the special members of the group, but must be assumed to have the same intrinsic causes in the different cases.
Source: Botanical Gazette
DOI: 10.1086/331923
Author: Hugo DeVries
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2003487426