210 LOCK : 



^.—FERTILE HYBRIDS. 



In describing the offspring of those hybrids where the 

 progeny presented no difficulty in the way of raising families 

 of considerable size, it will be most convenient to deal with 

 the simplest characters first, and afterwards to pass on to 

 those features which appear to present phenomena of greater 

 complexity. In the case of all the fertile hybrids, of which 

 it is proposed to give a description in the present paper, one 

 of the parents at least was represented by some form of N. 

 langsdorfii. Several supposed varieties of this species were 

 used, and of these it will be well to give some description. 



The typical Nicotiana langsdorfii has small greenish yellow 

 flowers (see Table VII. for measurements) and dark-blue pollen. 

 The flowers are greenish yellow, and have a markedly inflated 

 or bulged throat (not funnel-sliaped), and the margin of the 

 corolla is very obscurely lobed. This brief description includes 

 all the features with which we are at present concerned. 



In addition to the above a series of marked varieties were 

 grown, all of which were apparently fully fertile inter se, and 

 must be supposed to belong to the same species. The most 

 markedly distinct form had a much larger, funnel-shaped 

 corolla — white on the inside of the limb — witli well marked 

 lobes and white pollen. 



Most of the other forms seen can probably be obtained by 

 crossing these first two types together, and some of those 

 originally used may have actually so arisen, since there is 

 evidence that blue and white pollen, yellow and white corolla 

 colour, and the inflated and funnel-shaped throat of the 

 corolla respectively represent three separate pairs of Mendelian 

 characters. Indeed some of the plants first raised from seed 

 of vmknown ancestry were obviously of hybrid nature in respect 

 of some of these characters. 



The following forms were utilized as parents in several 

 hybrid combinations : — 



A. — N. langsdorfii — t5rpical form. Seed of this species 

 yielding plants which bred quite true for three generations 

 was received from Upsala n,nd from Bremen. In the latter 

 case the name supplied was N. noctiflora. Clearly an error. 



