The Origin of the Cultivated Cineraria
Abstract
RETURNING from abroad, I have just seen Mr. Dyer's letter in NATURE, March 14. Of the matters there treated I ask leave now to deal with one only, that numbered (18). This is a point of fact-the origin of the cultivated Cineraria. At a meeting of the Royal Society, on February 28, Mr. Dyer exhibited a specimen of Cineraria cruenta from the Canaries, side by side with a plant of the common cultivated form. With the object of minimising the value of ``sports'' in evolution, this exhibition was made to illustrate what can be done ``by the gradual accumulation of small variations.'' Mr. Dyer stated, if I rightly understood him, first, that of the two forms exhibited, the one had been produced from the other; secondly, that, as far as is known, this process of evolution had been accomplished by the gradual accumulation of small variations, and not by the selection of ``sports'' or seedlings presenting notable and striking variations. That in the case of a plant much modified by gardeners in recent times such a history would be highly unusual, Mr. Dyer will, I think, admit.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- April 1895
- DOI:
- 10.1038/051605b0
- Bibcode:
- 1895Natur..51..605B