HYBRIDISING OF MONSTROSITIES. 71 
the author of the species in question. He had the kindness to give me 
all necessary information. He also sent me an authentic specimen 
of the Lychnis Preslii collected by his uncle more than forty years ago. 
And now I have the pleasure of showing it to you for comparison. 
Lychnis vespertina glabra, which formed the starting point of my 
trials, does not appear to have been so far described; at any rate, I have 
not found it named in the literature at my disposal.* 
On the other hand, I found the plant itself at a station not far from 
Amsterdam, a station which has since disappeared. This was in August, 
1888, in the vicinity of Hilversum, where I collected seed from fully 
dried and nearly unrecognisable plants. When the following year I sowed 
these in my experimental garden, there appeared a few hairless among 
many hairy examples. I collected the seed of the former and sowed them, 
and as the culture did not turn out to be a pure one, [| isolated the hairless 
form later, during the flowering period. In 1892, in a bed containing 
many hundred examples, they were almost entirely true, since only a 
single more or less hairy plant was found. 
As already stated, I then projected to transfer this hairless condition 
to Lychnis diurna, and in that way to produce artificially a L. diwrna 
glabra or giaberrima. 
The purpose of my experiments can also be thus described—viz. to 
obtain, in quite another way, the form known as Lychnis Preslii, which 
is recognised by many authors as a good species, and which apparently 
has arisen in the Bohemian Alps from ZL. diurna. 
My attempt has fully succeeded. I effected the cross in the said 
year (1892), f and already in 1894 I had a not inconsiderable number of 
hairless examples of Lychnis diurna. The following year this form 
proved to be nearly constant, and since then I have cultivated it annually, 
and sometimes in large quantities. Among many hundreds of speci- 
mens there appeared only exceptionally solitary hairy individuals, so rarely, 
indeed, that this may perhaps be imputed to the introduction of weed 
seeds into the beds.t 
Hybrids between Lychnis vespertina and L. diurna have been obtained 
by Gaertner, Focke, and many other investigators.§ The crossing is easily 
effected ; the hybrids are fertile, and even apparently no less fertile than 
the parent species (Focke). Godron has also crossed Lychnis Preslii 
with L. vespertina, and obtaifted hairy hybrids which did not essentially 
differ from those obtained by crossing L. diwrna and L. vespertina. The 
investigation of the progeny of these hybrids does not appear to have 
excited much interest with the said authors. In the second generation 
these hybrids, as is the ordinary rule, break into various forms, among 
* The pubescence in Lychis vespertina and L. diwrna is essentially the same. 
Long many-celled unbranched hairs form a soft covering, among which smaller 
glandular hairs are distributed. 
{ In order to protect my flowers from insect visits I cover them with parchment 
paper bags, which have for years proved excellent for the purpose. These bags can 
be got from the manufactory of P. J. Schmitz, in Diisseldorf. Vide a separate paper 
on the subject. 
{ “Erfelyke Monstrositeiten’’ in Kruidkundig Jaarboek, Dodonea, 1897, pp. 71 
and 87. 
§ Gartner, Die Bastardbefruchtung im Pflanzenreich, and Focke, Die Pflanzen 
mischlinge. 
