432 • Stout: The Origin of Dwarf Plants 



rose color, lighter along the veins and becoming nearly pure white 

 for about i cm. at the base of the corolla lobes. Hibiscus oculi- 

 roseus has a rose red or Tyrian rose eye about 2 cm. in radius, 

 beyond which the petal is a sea-foam yellow. The flower pods 

 are ovoid with a long tapering point, the calyx segments' are 

 triangular-lanceolate and nearly twice as long as broad. Hibiscus 

 Moscheutos has a nearly globular bluntly pointed pod. On this 

 account he gives the type specific rank under the name H. ocu- 

 liroseus. 



Cultures of H. oculiroseus at the New York Botanical 



Garden 



Open-fed seed was collected from the plant obtained from 

 Pitcher and Manda and planted for the purpose of increasing 

 the stock of the species. The progeny (Nash, 1909) was composed 

 in part of plants conforming to H. oculiroseus and in part of plants 

 whose flowers suggested that the plants were hybrids between 

 H. oculiroseus and the rose-flowered type of H. Moscheutos, an 

 assumption which the writer has since proved to be true by con- 

 trolled crosses. 



At the time the writer began his investigations with Hibiscus 

 (191 1) there were seven plants of the H. oculiroseus characters 

 growing in the Garden, all derived from the one parent plant. 

 All of these were vigorous plants about five feet tall. Five of 

 these plants have been used as parents and will be referred to as 

 O No. I, No. 2, etc. 



One of these plants (0 No. i) produces each year a consider- 

 able number of leaves, somewhat crinkled and irregular, and the 

 uppermost internodes of the branches are somewhat shortened. 

 One would be inclined to attribute this to a fluctuating varia- 

 tion -due perhaps to local soil conditions. The other four plants 

 show no trace of any of the dwarf characteristics. 



Plants of the first pedigreed generation 



In 1912, fifteen plants (Series I) were grown from open-fed 

 seed collected from the plant No. i. Fourteen of these were 

 robust and vigorous in growth, but three of them had some leaves 



