<Tr> <Th> Fields </Th> <Td> Botany </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Institutions </Th> <Td> Leiden University </Td> </Tr> <P> Hugo Marie de Vries ForMemRS (Dutch pronunciation: (ˈɦyɣoː də ˈvris); 16 February 1848--21 May 1935) was a Dutch botanist and one of the first geneticists . He is known chiefly for suggesting the concept of genes, rediscovering the laws of heredity in the 1890s while unaware of Gregor Mendel's work, for introducing the term "mutation", and for developing a mutation theory of evolution . </P> <P> De Vries was born in 1848, the eldest son of Gerrit de Vries (1818--1900), a lawyer and deacon in the Mennonite congregation in Haarlem and later Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1872 until 1874, and Maria Everardina Reuvens (1823--1914), daughter of a professor in archaeology at Leiden University . His father became a member of the Dutch Council of State in 1862 and moved his family over to The Hague . From an early age Hugo showed much interest in botany, winning several prizes for his herbariums while attending gymnasium in Haarlem and The Hague . </P>

Who propounded the mutation theory of organic evolution