The Mutations in the Lajnarckiana-Fauiily. 227 



as that of 0. Lamarckiana. It is much more densely 

 clothed with foliage than the parent form, a state of 

 affairs brought about by the fact that the nodes are 

 closer together and that the leaves hang down. 



The inflorescences are extraordinarily luxuriant, with 

 short internodes, broad bracts and very large flowers 

 which form a much fuller and more beautiful group than 

 those of 0. Lamarckiana. The fruits are short and thick 

 and more or less conical ; the seeds are very large. 



In spite of the high degree of variability which this 

 plant exhibits it can be distinguished with ease from its 

 relatives at every stage of its development.-^ 



This species arose only once in the Lamar ckiana-isiru- 

 ily as the table on page 224 shows. In the other families 

 it has also only appeared twice. 



Its appearance was on this wise. In 1895 I had a 

 crop of about 14,000 plants constituting the 4th genera- 

 tion of the Lamarckiana-ia.m{\y. All the mutated indi- 

 viduals had been transplanted from this crop, and the 

 majority of the Lamarckianas had been weeded out, to 

 give more space to those which were to provide seed for 

 the next generation. At the beginning of August I had 

 about 1000 of these plants in flower, but many were still 

 in the rosette stage. I chose 32 of the strongest and 

 finest of these rosettes and planted them in a separate 

 bed the proper distance apart. 



These plants grew up the next year and flowered in 

 July and August. One of them caught my eye with its 

 thick stem, rather compressed inflorescence and notice- 

 ably larger flowers. On the 10th of August I picked off 

 all the flowers, both the open ones and those which were 



^ For a more detailed description of this and the other new spe- 

 cies see the next chapter. 



