222 THE WATERLILIES. 



edge that is weak argument) the kind of color shown by the hybrids is 

 totally different from that of N. mbra, and no trace of the latter species is 

 to be found in any part of the plant. We are also forced to take issue 

 concerning the supposed hybrids between Lotos and Hydrocallis 1 raised 

 by Mr. Ames at North Easton, Mass. (Ames, 1900; Grey, 1900). I have 

 the greatest confidence in the accuracy of Mr. Ames, and of his able 

 gardener, Mr. Grey, and the latter assures me that the seed-flowers were 

 carefully castrated and kept netted from insects. But the so-called hybrids 

 show absolutely no trace of the influence of a Hydrocallis parent, and it is 

 easier to believe that parthenogenesis or asexual budding from the endo- 

 sperm or perisperm has occurred in the highly fertile JV. loins flower than 

 to imagine a hybrid parentage with one parent obliterated. The case 

 demands, and might well repay, a rigid investigation. Similar crosses of 

 distantly related species have been repeatedly claimed, and by such 

 authorities as Planchon, Tricker, and Sturtevant, but they have either failed 

 to reach the public or have shown no trace of the pollen parent ; some- 

 times, indeed, there is strong evidence of the pollen of some related 

 species. 



Natural hybrids, i. e., those produced without human intervention, are 

 of frequent occurrence whenever kindred species are in the same pond. 

 Caspary and others have recorded hybrids of N. alba and Candida from 

 Europe, and intermediate forms between N. odorata rosca and N. tubcrosa 

 spring up in our gardens ; N. odorata caroliniana and N. o. luciana are of 

 such origin. N. flavo-virens always becomes mixed with N. zanzibariensis 

 if the two are near each other. 



From the fragmentary nature of our knowledge it is impossible to 

 draw any general conclusions on the laws of heredity in waterlilies. So 

 far as we can see, some characteristics are regularly blended in the hybrid 

 offspring, while others are carried over in toto, or even exaggerated, from 

 one or other parent. Thus, the spotting of the calyx so characteristic of 

 N. cacridea is not a whit diminished in N. pulchcrrima and N. Pennsyl- 

 vania, while in both the color of petal and size, shape and number of all 

 of the floral parts are decidedly intermediate. In N. Wm. Stone, as stated 

 above, the caudex is exactly like that of the seed parent, N. flavo-virens, 

 in size, shape, character of leaf-bases, hardiness, and keeping qualities. In 

 Brachyceras all known hybrids are sterile, except N. capensisKzanzibari- 

 ensis raised in our botanic garden, which is highly fertile, and of which a new 



' Mr. Ames' N. ampla, which I saw in 1901, is N. rudgeana Mey., collected by Mr. Grey in 

 Cuba. The so-called crosses may be " false-hybrids." 



