220 The Pedigree Faniilies. , 



Both 0. brez'istylis and 0. laevifolia come perfectly 

 true from seed as will be shown later on. They differ 

 from O. Lamarckiana in numerous characters, and are 

 therefore to be considered as true elementary species. 



When I first discovered them (1887) they were rep- 

 resented by very few individuals. Moreover each form 

 occupied a particular spot on the field. O. brevistylis 

 occurred quite close to the base from which the Oeno- 

 thera had spread ; O. laevifolia on the other hand, in a 

 small group of 10 to 12 plants, some of which were 

 flowering whilst others consisted only of radical leaves, 

 in a part of the field which had not up to that time been 

 occupied by O. Lamarckiana. The impression produced 

 was that all these plants had come from the seeds of a 

 single mutant. Since that time, both the new forms have 

 more or less spread over the field. 



I could find neither of these forms in the herbaria of 

 Leiden, Paris or Kew ; nor have the3^ so far as I have 

 been able to discover, been described from other local- 

 ities. Whether or no they did arise in my locality can 

 of course no longer be determined. But I think that until 

 proof to the contrary is forthcoming this must be re- 

 garded as extremely probable. So much at any rate is 

 certain that the discovery of these two species increased 

 my hope of witnessing the origin of other species from 

 the same stock — a hope which was soon to be fulfilled. 



In the autumn of 1886 I brought two samples from 

 Hilversum to Amsterdam for cultivation in the experi- 

 mental garden. One lot consisted of nine particularly 

 fine rosettes with almost fleshy roots; the other, of the 

 seed from a quinquelocular fruit from a plant growing 



Oesterr. Botan. Zeitschr., 1895, Nos. 5 and 6. (O. laevifolia is re- 

 ferred to there as O. oxypetala) . 



