230 



The Journal of Heredity 



sihery or brownish scales. This species 

 is nati\e to Japan and China and is 

 hardy only in the southern part of 

 the United States. 



Servettaz describes tlie (lowers of 

 the variety aiirea as differing from the 

 type species in ha\ing larger lobes 

 which are quadrangular instead of 

 of triangular, the tube is not narrowed 

 at the base and no fruit is produced. 

 The writer has not had an opportunity 

 to observe whether or not the speci- 

 mens of aiirea will fruit under con- 

 ditions at Riverside. 



CLASSIFICATIONS DIFFICULT 



This genus, Rleagnus, gives its name 

 to the Oleaster family (Eleagnaceae) 

 the word being an ancient Greek name 

 meaning a kind of willow^ from Elaios, 

 olive. In European countries this 

 genus is known as the wild olive from 

 the resemblance of its most common 

 species to the true olive, though the 

 two plants belong to entirely un- 

 related families. Plants of the oleaster 

 family are distinguished by their 

 peculiar scales, perigynous flowers, 

 the 1-celled, 1-seeded ovary and the 

 fleshy but free receptacle. 



No less an authority than J. D. 

 Hooker wrote that "in no genus of 

 shrubby flowering plants are the species 

 more difficult of definition hy cheir- 

 acters of habit and foliage than are 

 those of l\leagnus." The tedious task 

 of monographing this genus has been 

 painstakingly accomplished by Dr. 

 Camille Servettaz.'^ 



He states that (translated) "The 

 division of the genus Eleagnus into 

 species presents great difficulties, for 

 certain species distributed o\er large 



' Monographic dcs Eleagnacees in Hot. ("cnt 



geographical areas and under different 

 climates show extreme variations which 

 it is sometimes almost impossible 

 to classify. In order to definitel\- 

 determine a plant of this genus it 

 is necessary to know, for example, 

 if it flowers in spring or autunm, 

 if its flowers appear at the same time 

 as the leaves or later, if they are located 

 at the base, at the top or along the 

 entire length of the branch, if its 

 lea\"es are persistant or not, if its 

 floral stem continues its growth or 

 remains unchanged during the ripening 

 of the fruit, etc., etc. It is by these 

 biologic characters that specific deter- 

 minations are most certainly estab- 

 lished much more than by morpho- 

 logical characters for the represen- 

 tatives of the genus are variable enough 

 when following the mean." 



It is quite possible that many of the 

 different forms which W'ere such a 

 puzzle to Servettaz in his systematic 

 classifications were of the type ot non- 

 heritable variations due to climatic or 

 other causes but it is also quite possible 

 that some of them were true bud 

 variations. Indeed Servettaz recog- 

 nized this possibility in establishing a 

 species siibmacrophylla which he char- 

 acterized as comprised of "various 

 midway between E. pungens and 

 E. macro phylla, which were doubtless 

 hybrids or mutating forms." 



In any event there is no doubt of the 

 bud origin of the variegated forms 

 described and illustrated herewith nor 

 of their commercial stability during 

 successive bud generations under the 

 cf)ntinual asexual propagation of or- 

 dinar\- horticultural practise. 



iall)lalt, Ik'ilu-ftf 25, pt. 2. p. 1 128 (1908). 



Friendship and Sexuality 



FrEUNDSCHAFT fM) SKXUALriAT, \m\ 



Dr. Placzek, Ner\enarzt in Berlin. 

 Fiinfte, fast un\eriinderte Aullage. 

 Pp. 160, preis M.12. Bonn, A. 

 Marcus and E.Webers' Verlag, 1920. 



Dr. Placzek's book, which seems to 

 have attracted a good deal of attention 



in (lerniany, offers little of speci.il 

 interest to the geneticist. His thesis 

 is that friendship is largeh- based 

 merely on the attraction of personali- 

 ties, and that modern psychologists 

 who attempt to read a sexual element 

 into all tj'pes of frietidship are in 

 error. — P. P. 



