9^ Error in Genera and Species. [zof, 



an unusual variation among the florets, the style- branches 

 are irregular, and the stigmatic lines often irregular or indistinct. 

 If it is a hybrid of course Griudelia is one of the parents. The 

 doubt concerning this plant attaches in some measure to 

 the genus Eastwoodia. 10 



Hybridity appears to be within certain limits a matter more of 

 relative size and texture of the essential organs than of 

 absolute relationship as ordinarily accepted and it will cer- 

 tainly not be necessary to resort to parthenogenesis" 

 to account for the seeding of an Antennaria as long as the male 

 of any species of the genus or even of Gnaphalium be present. 



The field investigation of hybrids is a most interesting and 

 useful employment for botanists who do not have access to 

 large herbaria and libraries. The life history of a single species, 

 its limit of variation and its hybrids, if any, would be far more 

 useful than a dozen "decades" of new violets orSenecios. A few 

 years ago I happened upon a very instructive object lesson of this 

 kind. In the experiment grounds of Mr. Luther Burbank, the 

 well-known horticultural hybridizer, at Santa Rosa, I observed a 

 row of Zauschneria about a hundred yards in length. Mr. Bur- 

 bank informed me that he had transferred a single plant from a 

 locality not far away, and saving all the seeds produced by this 

 self-fertilized individual, had planted them to see what variations 

 he could get. In this row were all the forms, both of flower 

 and foliage, which have been observed in the genus, except the 

 extreme narrow or revolute leaf which is climatal variation 

 of drier regions. A few experiments of this kind would rid us of 

 a host of species. 



A description of a supposed new organism is imperfect unless 

 every part is fully described. The description by comparison is 

 often worse than none, it involves the assumption that the author 

 is capable of placing a species in the correct genus, or a genus in 

 the proper group, which sometimes can hardly be granted. 12 The 



(In) Brandegee, Zoe iv, 397. 



(11) Greene, Plant World, i, 102. 



(12) Cf. Zoe iv. 63-103 and 287- 291. 



