320 BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN MEMOIRS 
able. But here again this is duplicated by Heracleum and other 
Umbellifers, as well as by many Araliads. 
The writer can never forget his first knowledge obtained for the 
almost exactly synchronous floral expansion in Oenothera grandiflora. 
Two enthusiastic botanical lady friends had cultivated many of these 
handsome plants along with numerous other species nearly twenty- 
three years ago. He was asked to pay a visit about 7 P.M. on a mid- 
July evening. Chairs were set out amongst a group of the Oenotheras 
and he was asked to watch and listen. From 7.15 to 7.50 a constant 
succession of “‘pfuffs’’ was heard, that indicated the bursting of the 
sepals and unfolding of the petals, which rapidly took place before 
one’s eye. From the condition where scarcely a flower was open to 
begin with, to that seen at 7.50 the change was striking, for now the 
plants were gay with large expanded blossoms. Six years afterward 
the writer was carried by train from Botzen to Meran in the Tirol 
toward 7 P.M. and running for miles by the banks of the Adige River 
he witnessed the same synchronous series of events for plants of 
Oenothera that had been introduced there. 
In connection with genetical studies increasing attention has been 
paid during the past fifteen years to the behavior of varieties and 
hybrids. But extremely little has been published as to the relative 
period of flowering, fruiting or like phenological conditions for each 
parent and for the hybrid. But a very wide field for exact observa- 
tion is here awaiting study. The writer has drawn attention to some 
results and has since accumulated others. Thus, the relative pro- 
duction or not in the wild state of hybrid Sarracenias is almost wholly 
determined by the synchronous or asynchronous relation of the 
flowers. So the scarcity of wild hybrids of S. rubra with other species 
is in part due to difference in locality, but in large measure to later 
blooming period of that species. Under cultivation by placing plants 
in greenhouses of different temperatures a synchronous blooming can 
be effected, and such striking hybrids as S. Popet and S. Chelsonii 
represent the progeny. In such cases then an exact expenditure or 
retardation of definite heat units effects a synchrony that in their 
natural environment does not exist. The practical application of such 
methods in the prosecution of hybridization experiments will ensure 
success where failure might otherwise result. 
The writer has watched with interest the phenological behavior of a 
wild hybrid between Myrica cerifera and M. carolinensis, that his 
former graduate student, Dr. Youngken, has described under the 
name of M. Macfarlanet. The first of these is a narrow-leaved ever- 
green shrub or low tree, that has its northern limit in New Jersey 
round the mouth of the Great Egg Harbor River, and there the rather 
