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No large group and probably even no genus or large species has been evolved without the joint agency of these two great principles. In the mutation-period of the evening-primroses the observed facts give direct support to this conclusion, since some of the new species proved, on closer inspection, to be retrograde varieties, while others manifestly owe their origin to progressive steps.
All hypotheses concerning the direct causes of adaptation at once become superfluous, and the great principle enunciated by Darwin once more reigns supreme. In this way too, the mutation-period of the evening-primrose is to be considered as a prototype. Assuming it as such provisionally, it may aid us in arranging the facts of descent so as to allow of a deeper insight and a closer scrutiny.
Following this line backward or downward we reach another apparent mutation-period, which includes the origin of the group called Oenothera, with a large number of species of the same general type as the Onagra-forms, Still farther downward comes the old genus Oenothera itself, with numerous subgenera diverging in sundry characters and directions.
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