The Mutation Theory, Vol. 1: Experiments and Observations on the Origin of Species in the Vegetable Kingdom

Excerpt from The Mutation Theory, Vol. 1: Experiments and Observations on the Origin of Species in the Vegetable Kingdom
The promulgation of the principle of unit-characters is the main theme of this work, as is emphasized in the first sentence of the Introduction. At the time of the publication of the first part of the German edition (1900) this principle was new and was also in evident opposition to the current belief in the slow and gradual evolution of the organic world. During the years that have since elapsed, it has gained almost universal acceptance, though there are still some authors, especially among zoologists, who are opposed to it.
The evidence which supported this view was derived from three main sources.
First a clearer understanding of the processes of selection in agricultural plant-breeding. This conception has since been corroborated in the most convincing manner by the work of Nilsson and of Korschinsky and it points to the elementary species as the real material for artificial and natural selection.
Secondly, the experimental evidence afforded by the evening primroses and some other groups of plants; especially the observed origin of Oenothera gigas, which appeared suddenly in my cultures in the year 1895 and possessed, at its first origin, all the attributes of a new species, including constancy and even a double number of chromosomes in its nuclei.
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