1903.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. • 327 



CEnothera Lamarckiana." The writer at least hopes that more 

 detailed observations will confirm the encouraging words of Prof. 

 De Vries, However, to know whether the mutabiUty is still working, 

 or whether the period has already come to a close, it is of course 

 necessary to make sowing experiments. This was done last fall at 

 Sea Side Park, where seeds obtained from capsules that had matured 

 were marked by stakes and sown in a portion of the meadow destitute 

 of the rose mallow to determine among the different forms which is 

 the original and mutating one, because it is probable that the others 

 would no more mutate or do so only in a restricted manner. Seeds 

 of the several marked plants were also kept for future sowing. 



All of the plants studied, with the exception of plants III, IV, V, XII, 

 XVII, were more than of one year's duration. As is well known, 

 Hibiscus moscheutos L. is perennial and persists for a number of years. 

 The doubt might arise in the minds of some botanists that the smaller 

 plants are small because they are juveniles and have not reached full 

 maturity. The size of plants III, IV, V, XII, XVII and the shape of 

 their leaves may be accounted for in this way, but the color of the 

 flowers, leaves and markings can hardly be explained by a reference 

 to the juvenile state, because these plants diverge as widely in appear- 

 ance as the other twenty adult plants do from each other. The adult 

 plants differ from each other, as do the plants of one year's growth, and 

 the inference is, therefore, that the difference in size, mode of branching, 

 size'of leaves, shapes and colors of leaves, character of inflorescences, 

 size and color of the flowers is not dependent upon whether the plant 

 is juvenile or adult, but is due rather to the mutations that they have 

 undergone. 



Dried plants do not show the peculiarities of structure in as striking 

 a manner as do living plants. In drying, the plants have lost form, 

 and the color of the flowers and leaves has faded out. As the botanist, 

 however, stands in the salt meadow where Hibiscus moscheutos L. 

 abounds and runs his eye over the thousands of plants that are found 

 there, he cannot fail but notice the various striking forms character- 

 ized by habit of growth, size and color of the stem, leaves and flowers, 

 that have been produced, as the writer believes, by the process of mu- 

 tation. One plant is tall and has pure white flowers with bronzed 

 leaves. Another is bright green with rose-pink flowers, while stiU 

 another plant is corymbosely branched and has deep rose-red flowers. 

 These peculiarities are mentioned as they occur in twenty-five plants 

 gathered in the summer of 1902 for comparative study. 



