Oenothera Brevistylis. 317 



The ovary extends a little above the insertion of the 

 corolla up into the style. 



O. brevistylis was the first sub-species of Oenothera 

 Lamarckiana which I discovered. I found it in August 

 of the first year of my investigations, 1886, when, as 

 already stated (p. 266) it occupied a little corner in the 

 northeast of the field. There were two individuals, one 

 where the plants grew thickest, the other on a spot about 

 one hundred paces away. Both were well developed, 

 flowering from many shoots and, as far as I could judge, 

 biennial. I found them on the 25th of August. They 

 caught my eye from quite a distance by the almost com- 

 plete absence of any fruit on them. This character made 

 it easy to be certain that only these two had been short- 

 styled when in flower, for all the others had set normal 

 fruits. 



In 1889, the part of the field in which these two short- 

 styled plants stood was well cleaned and dug up; never- 

 theless, towards the end of July of that year I found a 

 group of 12 short-styled individuals nearly in the middle 

 of the field on a spot where not a single Oenothera grew 

 in 1886. The new species has since maintained itself on 

 this spot and it has been observed there nearly every 

 year. In the summer of 1894 I saw six plants there in 

 flower; in August of 1898 they were fairly numerous, 

 but since then they have appeared only sporadically. 



Before 1895 I thought O. hrevistyUs incapable of 

 setting seed; for I regarded it as being solely male. In 

 1895 I collected lots of fruits and got a meagre quantity 

 of seed which seemed to me to be empty, so that I did 

 not sow it in the following spring, but when in the fol- 

 lowing autumn I had gone over my cultures thoroughly 

 I came to the conclusion that it might be worth while to 



