VOLUME XLVI NUMBER I 



Botanical Gazette 



NEW YORK BOTAf 

 JULY igoS 



Given by N. L 

 A STUDY OF REDUCTION IN OENOTHERA 

 RUBRINERVIS 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE HULL BOTANICAL LABORATORY III 



Reginald Ruggles Gates 



(with PLATES I-IIl) 



The present contribution is a statement of some of the results 

 obtained in the cytological study of Oenothera Lamarckiana and its 

 mutants. Since these results have a more or less direct bearing on a 

 wide range of fact and theory in various fields, their full discussion is 

 reserved for a future time. The facts presented in this communica- 

 tion will be taken almost wholly from the study of O. rubrinervis, one 

 of the most vigorous of the mutants. Other papers will be presented 

 later, giving the further evidence upon which the conclusions of this 

 paper rest, and attempting to indicate their bearing on the general 

 problems of cytology and variation involved. 



Material 



The plants from which the material for these studies was obtained 

 were grown from pedigreed seeds of DeVries, the purity of these 

 cultures being further proven, in some cases, by carrying on the pedi- 

 gree for another generation before collections were made. The 

 results of these cultures, which are still being carried forward to later 

 generations, will be published at another time in connection with an 

 account of other studies on variation and hybridization in Oenothera. 

 In this way it is hoped, if possible, to correlate the cytological data 

 with the work in hybridization and variation. It seems to the writer 

 that only by thus combining cytological with experimental studies is an 

 explanation of the peculiar and remarkable phenomena of variation 

 exhibited bv the Oenotheras to be reached. 



