The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-10-02
HOW To INCREASE
WORLDS FOODS
Prof. De VrleS Tells Of Expert
IlGntS In Mutation Of Plants.
MADE DAISIES GROW BIGGER.
Dean Of Botanists Believes Wheat and
Rice Can Also Be Intensified to Feed
Future Generations--Ie Is to Explore
the Wilds of Southern Florida.

Rice Can Also BE Intensified to Feed
Future Generatons--He Is to Explore
the Wilds Of Southern Florida.
Professor Hugo de Vries, director of
the Amsterdam Botanical garden and
the recognized dean of botanists. re-
Gently lectured Mt the New York Bo-
tanical gardens on his observations
and experiments in the mutation of
plants. Many scientists attended the
lecture and lauded Professor de Vries
af the successor to Darwin and
Great benelactor to the nations"
Dr de Nries, man of about sixty
years, does not mind being called a
successor to Darwin, whose work he
has adapted. He would deny, how
ever, that he had not gone further than
Darwin in his understanding of plant
life. 1t was exactly the divergence
between Darwin's conclusions and his
own conclusions that constituted the
subject matter of Or. de Vries' lecture.
Darwin, it is recalled, explained the
origin of new species by the theory of
gradual variation. DR.. de Vries, on the
other hand, while he admits that there
are no end of gradual variations in
plant life, adds that new species also
come into being by leaps and bounds
in n single day, as it were.
The Best illustrations.
The best Illustrations of the muta-
ton of plants DR.. de Vries noted in
such flowers as the foxglove, daisy,
evening primrose and marigold. In his
own experiments, starting with an or
dinary single daisy and keeping all the
seed and planting it. he noticed second
year daisies having twice as many
petals as they had the first year and at
the expense of a diminishing center.
Continuing the selection of the seed
from the exceptional specimens in each
daisy patch, he grew within four years
daisy which had no center seed pods
whatever and which had increased
its petals or ray flowers during that
time from 21 to 200. Needless to say,
the new flower did not resemble the or
dinary daisy at all, and it remained in
tact as distinct species of flora.
fessor de Vries maintained, of the ne
cessity of increasing the yields Of all
plants, so that the increasing popula-
ton of the future might not want His
optimism in the development of plant
life extends to wheat and rice and the
other grain, although he said he was
not yet experimenting in those fields.
Not Rva!ing Burbank.
"Dr. de Vries is not rivaling our
own Burbank" said DR.. w. A. Murrill,
director of the New York botanical
gardens. "He stands supreme in his
own line of endeavor. His expert
ments are purely theoretical. Burbank
tries to develop the biggest plums and
the biggest potatoes, but De Vries tries
to make two petals grow where but one
grew before. He is paving the way for
the bigger Burbanks Of the future.
"Our experimental stations, you
know, are practical, and they seek
practical results in the culture of food
stuffs. But some day that line of ex-
perimental work will be exhausted
and scientists will ask for something
new. Then some one will apply, in
practical way, the principles which
Professor de Vries is now laying down.
The secret of the future is to be able
to repeat exactly by agriculture the
mutations as observed now in nature.
That Is the work of science, and that
Is where the new and bigger Burbanks
will have their future"
The special occasion which brought
DR.. de Vries to this country at this
time is the opening of the great Rice
Industrial institute in Houston, Tex,
in october. He also expects to visit
a county in Alabama where n variety
Of especially large evening primroses
has long been a great attraction.
Later he viii join an exploring expedi-
tiOn to be sent by the New York bo-
tanical gardens TO the wilds of south
ern Florida.