208 LOCK : 



to flower a week before the parent strain of N. rustica and 

 three weeks before plants of N. paniculata sown at the same 

 time. No self-fertihzed seeds were obtained under cover, but 

 in the o]oen, where the plants were freely pollinated by bees, a 

 small amount of good seed was obtained — usually not more 

 than three or foar seeds from a capsule. The pollen parent of 

 the great majority of these seeds was almost certainly a strain of 

 N. rustica similar to, but not identical with, the original 

 parent foim, since plants of this strain grew near at hand and 

 were also freely visited by bees. 



F 2 grown at Peradeniya consisted of some 21 plants derived 

 from these seeds. These plants exhibited a very remarkable 

 diversity in size, habit, inflorescense , and in the shape and 

 texture of the leaves. The flowers appeared to vary in shape 

 and size between those of the primary hybrid and N. rustica. 

 F 1 plants (N. rustica X paniculata), grown under similar 

 conditions at Peradeniya, showed no such diversity, which 

 would therefore appear to depend upon the segregation of 

 characters in the gametes of the primary hybrid. Since, 

 however, the parentage of this generation was not controlled, 

 no definite deduction must be drawn from its appearance. 

 The drawing of deductions would be a difficult matter in any 

 case, since no two plants out of the 21 were alike, nor was any 

 one of them quite like either the primary hybrid, or any form 

 of N. rustica with which I am acquainted. The differences 

 were of the sort, which one would be naturally disposed to 

 associate with mutations from a natural species, as described 

 by de Vi'ies. 



From the measurements of the flowers of these plants as 

 set out in Tables I. and II. , it seems fair to conclude that the 

 careful examination of 50 plants, or so, of the cross (N. 

 rustica X paniculata) X paniculata would be likely to yield 

 results of considerable interest. I obtained a few apparently 

 perfect seeds of this parentage in 1907, but on arrival in 

 Ceylon they failed to germinate. N. paniculata suffers con- 

 siderably from heavy rain even in England. A few tropical 

 downpours proved altogether too much for it, and 1 have not 

 been able to repeat the cross. 



