THE PIMPERNELS 47 



more example to this category. It can no longer be accepted that 

 the supposed intermediate character of a plant between two allied 

 ones offers any presumption that the plant in question is a 

 hybrid. Unless experimental evidence of hybridity is forth- 

 coming, some other proof, such, for example, as that based on dis- 

 tribution, must be adduced before any particular plant may be 

 safely regarded as a hybrid. From this point of view, it is a pity 

 that most Mendelian workers prefer to use almost exclusively 

 plants of garden origin, instead of closely allied wild plants which 

 w^ould serve their purpose quite as well. 



It is now established that the scarlet Pimpernel will hybridize 

 with some blue Pimpernels, that the hybrids of the first genera- 

 tion of these have scarlet flowers (very rarely streaked with blue), 

 and that the latter, when self-pollinated, yield offspring, many 

 with scarlet and a few with blue flowers. In a state of nature, 

 any one of the hybrid products may possibly be fertilized with any 

 other hybrid product or with either of the original parents ; and 

 thus it is obvious that, in any locality where the parental scarlet 

 and blue plants occur, a host of hybrid forms may be produced, some 

 with scarlet and some with blue flowers. Hence, it is quite possible 

 that there are many more than three kinds of blue Pimpernels in 

 the country, and many kinds of scarlet ones which have hitherto 

 eluded observation ; and the kinds of wild Pimpernels may ulti- 

 mately prove to be as numerous as the cultivated races of, say, 

 the Sweet Pea. 



Professor Weiss is now carrying on experiments with a view 

 to settle the systematic position of A. carnea. At present this 

 botanist is inclined to regard A. carnea, in which he notes some 

 variatioii in colour, as " a pale variety of the scarlet Pimpernel " ; 

 and this has been the view of Bi'itish systematists generally. 



It is frequently stated that one of the blue Pimpernels and 

 one of the flesh-coloured Pimpernels are erect. However, all the 

 plants I have seen of these are more or less prostrate at maturity, 

 though younger plants are often suberect or ascending ; and pos- 

 sibly this is the case with .4. latifolia, which Mr. Williams states 

 is also erect. Nor have I ever seen a Pimpernel with truly amplexi- 

 caul leaves, though one form of the blue and one form of the 

 flesh-coloured Pimpernels have, when growing in rich garden soil, 

 large leaves, partially overlapping at the base. 



It cannot be denied that the established results of recent work 

 on hybridization will render the future work of the systematist 

 more complicated, although, at the same time, the relationships 

 of closely allied forms will become much better known and appre- 

 ciated. In so far as this work tends to drive the systematist from 

 work exclusively in the herbarium into the open field or into the 

 experimental garden, the ultimate effect will be highly salutary to 

 the science of botany as a whole. 



