BRAINERD: HYBRIDS OF THE PALMATA GROUP 91 
The problem is to account for the presence in a colony of 
normal V. ¢riloba of three plants so variant from V. triloba and 
from each other. But however confused the situation may 
appear, all may be accounted for by regarding the three odd 
plants as the descendants of a cross between V. triloba and V. 
papilionacea, a common species of the region. Plant (1) seems 
to have escaped the conflict of characters forced into the make-up 
of the original hybrid and attained to stability and relative fertility, 
inheriting uncut leaves from V. papilionacea but pubescence and 
buff seeds from V. triloba. Plant (2) seems to be.another stable 
ex-hybrid, inheriting also pubescence from V. ériloba’ but dark 
brown seeds as well as uncut leaves from V. papilionacea. Plant 
(3) is partly rescued from hybrid instability, at least as regards 
pubescence, but is still hybrid as regards leaf form— what we 
may call a subhybrid, still bearing in its infertility the stigma of 
its irregular parentage. 
Of the twelve plants of “‘ V. variabilis” sent me by Dr. Greene 
in 1908 I regard nine as the progeny of V. papilionacea X triloba; 
and the case is exactly parallel to the one just described, though 
on a somewhat larger scale. The differing characters of Dr. 
Greene’s plants are presented in the following synopsis, and will 
be found in all cases to be only new combinations of those found 
in the putative parents. The numbers given are those that the 
several plants bear in my notebook. 
Leaves with uncut blades. 
Blades broadly cordate-ovate, blunt-pointed, pubescent beneath. 
® ater, MbOUt 24 iW a tepbale? foo A ee i 2, 12 
Seeds dark } about-i4¢ in & cansuléwss <3 see. ben 5, 6, 7, 10 
On the seven sheets of “ V. variabilis” in the U. S. National 
Herbarium there are only six plants that represent this group, 
and they all have uncut leaves. As none were collected later 
than May 14, the color of their seeds is unknown; nor has any 
plant developed leaves with subcordate reniform outline. These 
forms and the two with lobed leaves (no. 4, 9, and 8 above) indi- 
cate that Dr. Greene sent me a fuller representation of this hybrid 
8roup than he had previously collected for himself. 
