NEWS, NOTES AND WANTS. 91 



garden. One must live in the field and be thoronghly familiar 

 with the plants of the locality before he is likely to notice even 

 the more striking mutations, should he be so fortunate as to pass 

 by their isolated habitat. * * * 



Many of the more important processes of evolution can be 

 discovered only through series of pedigree cultures. The notion 

 that species, to be good species, must have their origin in the 

 field, or nature's garden and not in man's, has come down to us 

 from a previous generation. This notion with other modes of 

 thought, formulae, and assumptions has been so thoroughly dif- 

 fused through scientific thought and literature that it is held 

 by many as a kind of dogma which if logically applied would 

 exclude experimentation entirely as a factor in determining the 

 character of evolution and speciation. * * * And finally, 

 is it not immaterial whether a species to be a good species, cover 

 a square mile or a continent, whether it continue for ten genera- 

 tions with a few thousand individuals or for a geolgoical period 

 with countless millions ?" 



Commenting upon the article published b}^ Dr. MacDougal 

 in the February number of The Plant World, Dr. E. M. Har- 

 per writes us : 'Tn Georgia and Alabama I have seen three pre- 

 sumably hybrid oaks which have probably never been mentioned 

 in print, namely, Q. geminata X Margaretta, Q. alba X Virgin- 

 iana, and Q. minor X Prinus. There are two or three hybrid 

 ferns which have been discussed a good deal, such as Asplenium 

 ehenoides and Dryopteris cristata X marginalis. In the volumes 

 of Rhodora, if not elsewhere, you can find references to hybrids 

 in Biibus and Spiranthes (Gyrostacliys or Ibidium). Hybrids 

 are probably more numerous in proportion tO' number of species 

 in Sarracenia than in anv other American e'enus. I have found 

 S. flava X minor and S. minor X psittacina in Georgia. (See 

 Bulk Torrey Club, 33:236, Ann. K y. Acad. Sci., 17:234), 

 and S. Drummondii X flava in Alabama. Natural hybrids of 

 S. purpurea with flava, rubra and perhaps others are also known. 

 In 1900 I found what seemed pretty good evidence that Larin- 

 iaria Boyhinni was a hybrid. (See Bull. Torrey Club, 28 :481, 



