FLOWERS OF LAGERSTROEMIA INDICA. 99 



view by the statement that the species in which the occur- 

 rence of only one kind of stamens is most typical, L. syeciosaj 

 is by far the most widely distributed and may represent the 

 oldest species of the genus. 



Since this species has attracted so much attention, it 

 seems worth while to place on record the observations which 

 I have made on the variability of the flowers of a lot of 

 plants growing at the Missouri Botanical Garden. In put- 

 ting these observations into print, I wish to make very clear 

 the fact that I do not submit the constants secured here as 

 typical of the entire species. They are based on several 

 hundred flowers from about a dozen individuals. The prob- 

 able errors of the constants calculated in this paper are 

 low, but these show merely the degree of reliability of the 

 constants for the series of material in hand, and must not 

 be interpreted as fixing the limits of trustworthiness of con- 

 stants for the species as a whole. At St. Louis the shrubs 

 must be taken into the house during the winter. To gain a 

 satisfactory knowledge of the variabiUty of the flowers the 

 data should be collected in the South, where the plant is 

 hardy out of doors; or better still, in its native habitat. Of 

 course the ideal thing would be to have comparative bio- 

 metric studies of several species of Lager stroemia growing in 

 their own habitats, where their ecological relationships might 

 be satisfactorily investigated. The hope of interesting some 

 one who has opportunity to carry out this work as it should 

 be done, is the chief object of this paper. My observations 

 merely emphasize again the importance of what others have 

 written, and contribute a little to the quantitative data of 

 the subject, leaving the working out of satisfactory constants 

 to represent the species as a whole to some one who has 

 more adequate materials. 



In 1903, 1904 and 1907 I was able to secure countings of 

 sepals, petals and large stamens from the shrubs in the Mis- 

 souri Botanical Garden. It was not possible to count the' 

 small stamens, as well, because of lack of time. The ma- 

 terial was collected primarily for some physiological work 

 which required the stamens to be removed and used quickly.. 

 Even had time been available their number is so large that it 



