kaits

Updated: May 22, 2025

Moreover they touch questions which are of wide importance for the study of the biology of American deserts. For this reason I may be allowed to introduce them here at some length. The desert of Kaits, in Northern Ceylon, nourishes on its dry and torrid sands some species, represented by a large number of individuals, together with some rarer plants.

Hugo de Vries - Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation

The second point, in which Nageli's idea is broken down by Holtermann's observations, results from the behavior of the plants of the Kaits desert when grown or sown on garden soil. When treated in this way they at once lose the only peculiarity which might be considered as a consequence of the desert-life of their ancestors, their dwarf stature.

Hugo de Vries - Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation

In the first case the plant becomes capable of living under the alternating circumstances, and if growing near the limits of such regions it will overlap and get into the new area. All other species, which did not acquire the double habit, are of course excluded, with such curious exceptions as those of Kaits.

Hugo de Vries - Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation