The consequence was that the average number of rays increased rapidly, and with it the absolute maximum of the whole strain. The average came up from 21 to 34. Brighter and brighter crowns of the yellow rays improved my race, until it became difficult and very time consuming to count all the large rays of the borders. The largest numbers determined in the succeeding generations increased by leaps from 21 to 34 in the first year, and thence to 48 and 66 in the two succeeding summers. Every year I was able to save enough seed from the very best plant and to use it only for the continuance of the race. Before the selected plants were allowed to open the flowers from which the seed [501] was to be gathered, nearly the whole remaining culture was exterminated, excepting only some of the best examples, in order to have the required material for cross-pollination by insects. Each new generation was thereby as sharply selected as possible with regard to both parents. All flower-heads were of course closely inspected. Not the slightest indication of real doubling was discovered, even in the summer of 1899 in the fourth generation of my selected race. But among the best the new character suddenly made its appearance. It was at the commencement of September (1899), too late to admit of the seeds ripening before winter. An inspection of the younger heads was made, which revealed three heads with some few rays in the midst of the disk on one plant, the result of the efforts of four years. Had the germ of the mutation lain hidden through all this time? Had it been present, though dormant in the original sample of seed? Or had an entirely new creation taken place during my continuous endeavors? Perhaps as their more or less immediate result? It is obviously impossible to answer these questions, before further and similar experiments shall have been performed, bringing to light other details that will enable us to reach a more definite conclusion. [502] The fact that the origination of such forms is accessible to direct investigation is proven quite independently of all further considerations. The new variety came into existence at once. The leap may have been made by the ancestor of the year 1895, or by the plant of 1899, which showed the first central rays, or the sport may have been gradually built up during those four years. In each case there was a leap, contrasting with the view which claims a very long succession of years for the development of every new character. Having discovered this first trace of doubling, it was to be expected that the new variety would be at once as pure and as rich as other double composites usually are. Some effect of the crossing with the other seed-bearing individuals might still disturb this uniformity in the following year, but another year's work would eliminate even this source of impurity.