8 BREEDING 



and the characters of 0. gigas are so striking tliat if 

 one of these twenty-five plants had been a gigas it 

 could not have been overlooked, as the seed-bearing 

 plants were under continual and close observation. 



The self-fertilised seeds of the original gigas were 

 sown in 1897. They produced somewhat over 450 

 plants. All of them were exactly like their parent, 

 with one exception, to be mentioned later ; and they 

 constitute a type distinct, from the very outset, 

 from 0. LamarcJciana. They bred true on their first 

 appearance, and have continued to do so ever 

 since. 



(Enotliera ruhrinervis, which, unlike 0. gigas, is 

 one of the commonest of the new species which 

 arose from 0. LamarcJciana, is characterised, as its 

 name implies, by the possession of bright red veins 

 on the leaves and broad red stripes on the calyx and 

 fruit. The flowering spike is shown in Fig. 4. The 

 leaves are narrower than those of Lamarckiana ; 

 but perhaps the most remarkable feature of this 

 new species is the brittleness of the stem. If the stem 

 of the flowering plant is hit, it breaks in two or three 

 places with perfectly smooth surfaces of fracture. 

 The cause of this brittleness is the extremely slight 

 development of the bast fibres in the vascular 

 bundles, in the stem. In all other respects ruhrinervis 

 is a healthy species, and it is the only one of the new 

 species which produces as much pollen and seed as 

 the parent species. 



0. ruhrinervis arose from 0. Lamarckiana sixty- 

 six times in all, and not only did it always possess 



