30 
Inheritance Studies on Hollyhocks’ 
By Ortanp FE. Wuite and Mary ELLEN PECK 
Studies on the inheritance of flower color, leaf shape, and 
other characters in this popular garden plant have been continued 
during 1926. A collection of the various types and varieties 1s 
being made to facilitate these investigations. 
“ Hardiness,” Mutation, and the Geographical Distribution of 
Plants 
By OrRLAND E. WHITE 
My primary interest in this problem arose in connection with 
the idea that if mutations in plants take place in all directions 
and thus affect each kind of structure and function, there is no 
reason, a priori, to suppose that strictly tropical species may not 
produce mutants that would live in regions with much lower tem- 
peratures. In the January, 1926 number of the Brooklyn Botanic 
sarden Recorp, I published a short preliminary paper on this 
subject, outlining the problem and setting forth some facts and 
generalizations having to do with it. Since then I have been 
gathering data of a more specific nature. Such a problem ts 
difficult to investigate, since it is only by the merest accident that 
one might discover such mutants by growing seed of tropical 
species under lower temperature nations! Then, too, present 
methods of collecting seed of tropical woody or herbaceous peren- 
nial plants are unfavorable to bringing to light such mutants, be- 
cause most seed collectors secure their seed of a given species 
from a very few individuals. 
By searching through horticultural, gardening, forestry, and 
economic plant literature, and in other ways, data on this sub- 
ject are being accumulated. Several cases of Magnolia grandi- 
flora, hardy far north of its natural range, have been found. J. 
A. Neilson (Report Northern Nut Growers’ Assoc. 1925, p. 63) 
states that there is a pecan tree growing on the grounds ot 
Richard Martin, Hamilton, Ontario, which grew from a nut ob- 
tained from a tree in San Antonio, Texas, in 1914. The tree 1s 
now 18 feet high, 4 inches in diameter, and appears to be per- 
