“Previously, no; but now he can.”
“My dear fellow! How so?”
“Haven’t you read anything about the experiments of the Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries?”
“No.”
“Well, his experiments have proved that there are certain vegetable species which, all at once, without any preparation, without anything to make you expect it, change type absolutely and take on other characters.”
“The devil! That really is extraordinary.”
“Vries verified this rapid transformation first in a plant named OEnotheria Lamarckiana, which, all of a sudden, with no influence from the environment, with nothing to justify it, at times changes and metamorphosizes itself into a different plant.”
“But this transformation may be due to a disease,” said Alzugaray.
“No, because the mutation, after taking place, persists from generation to generation, not with pathological characteristics, but with completely normal ones.”
“It is most curious.”