LINNEAN SOCIETY OP LONDON. 5 



whole length of the spike the flower consisted of a bifid upper 

 petal, seven stamens, and style. The upper part of this spike was 

 isolated ; it produced abundant self-fertilized seed. 



C. The spike of this ])lant grew to be 5 feet high ; from base to 

 apex its flowers consisted of nine stamens and a style, with no 

 vestige of petals. 



It is unnecessary to follow the history of plant A, as it was 

 only the lower part of the spike in which the flowers were abnormal, 

 and the stem was not isolated. 



Seed taken from tlie upper covered part of the plant B 

 (described above) germinated abundantly ; twenty-one of these 

 plants flowered in 1^09. Of these twenty-one plants thirteen 

 produced spikes of the parent type, and eight produced normal 

 Poxglove flow'Crs. One of the thirteen plants grew to be 5 feet 

 1 inch high, its spike producing one bifid petal and a style ; but 

 its terminal fiower consisted of twenty-two stamens and a large 

 flask-shaped carpel (divided into seven compartments) and style, 

 but having no corolla, that is, it had no petals. (As shown in 

 photograph exhibited.) 



The season of 1909 was sunless with constant rain ; conse- 

 quently, all covered plants suffered much from mildew, but I 

 managed to collect some self-fertilized seed from the terminal 

 flower of the plant referred to, and this seed germinated and 

 flowei-ed in 1911. Every one of the twelve plants I reared from 

 tlie seed of the terminal flower produced flowers precisely like the 

 parent. Two of these plants were isolated and their self-fertilized 

 seed germinated freely (September, 1911). 



The seed originally collected from the covered part of plant C 

 of 1007, had produced plants which in 1909 gave flowers precisely 

 similar to the parent plant ; self-fertilized seed from these plants 

 (1909) in 1911 produced plants exactly like those of 1907, ■i.e., 

 flowers having nine stamens and a style but no petals ; self- 

 fertilized seed from these plants are now (September, 1911) 

 germinating freely. Some of the plants of 1909, however, in 

 place of a tall single spike grew some seven or eight shorter spikes, 

 each flower of which had nine stamens but no petals. 



It seems that a certain number of the Foxglove seeds sown in 

 the year 1906 contained elements in a condition such as that 

 described by de Vries as being " impressed by an impulsive muta- 

 bility,"' for some of the flowers produced by these seeds were 

 sports. Seeds from these sports produced their like in 1909 ; 

 and, further, these latter plants produced some terminal flowers 

 totally differing in character from the parent sport from which 

 they were derived. Seeds from these terminal flowers produced 

 their like in the year 1911 ; so that 1 have now two different strains 

 of Foxglove plants produced from the seeds sown in 1906, and these 

 strains have been produced from self-fertilized flowers, that is, 

 from flowers carefully protected from insects or other means 

 of cross-fertilization. If other observers would record their 



