410 NEW JERSEY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



It is seen that the color of the T. porrifolius has the largest number,, 

 with its nearest neighboring shades as next largest. The dark reds 

 follow closely. In short, the violets and reds predominate, while 

 in the yellow there is a fair showing. 



During the present season the seedlings of no one mother plant 

 differed in any particular way from others. They all showed equally 

 the wide variation in the colors of the flowers that has been detailed 

 in the table. 



The piece of ground bearing the hybrids is left with the plants to 

 self-seed the land, that a study may be made of the persistency of the 

 forms when growing, as nearly as possible, in a state of nature. 



Whether a drifting back to one or the other, or both parents, will 

 take place, or instead, a new hybrid species will come into existence, 

 is one of those questions that is not answered by philosophy, but by 

 the action of the surrounding influences, in combination with the- 

 internal forces upon a confused and interblended stream of life 

 currents. 



Plot II., Series III., was sown to salsify, the seed in alternate row^" 

 being from the plot where hybrids occurred the previous season, and 

 natural mixing was to be expected. There were but few plants 

 among all these suspects that proved to be hybrids, and these were 

 invariably in the rows with the cultivated species. These hybrids, 

 similar to those of 1900, were of two types, previously described, and 

 were large in size and enormous bloomers. The seeds of these plants 

 were sown in mid-summer for a second plot of seedling hybrids, and 

 have made a good stand for passing the winter. 



A large amount of artificial crossing was done with the rows of the 

 two parent species, that the stock of the hybrid may be so far increased 

 next year that the roots may be tested as to their merit as an article 

 of food.* 



Other Crossing. 



Two species of Martynia have been grown the present season for 

 the purpose of hybridizing. Several fruits were obtained between 

 Martynia Louisiana Mill, and M. lutea, with the former as the mother 

 plant ; but the three fruits upon the latter parent were too young 

 when the frosts came to give viable seeds. What this union of twO' 



*Some of tlie above facts were given by the writer in a paper before Section G^ 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, at its meeting at Denver^ 

 Colo., in August. 



