350 Origin of Each Species Considered Separately. 



aliv'C. I never found them at Hilversum; and even if 

 they had ever succeeded in germinating there, they would 

 most certainly have perished before developing a stem. 

 This was exactly what happened in my experimental 

 garden from the time my experiments began until 1896. 

 These facts moreover show, as mentioned above (p. 229), 

 that my first alhida mutants could not have had similar 



individuals in their an- 

 cestry, neither as pollen 

 parents nor as seed pa- 

 rents. 



Even when 0. al- 

 hida has set seed the 

 difficulty of getting the 

 seed to germinate is 

 considerable; but the 

 attempt to keep the 

 young plants strong 

 from the very begin- 

 ning has succeeded. 

 Some of them always 

 remain weak and look 

 just like the young 

 mutants, others bear 

 broader leaves and 

 gradually grow to little 

 rosettes .which are apparently just as strong as those of 

 O. ohlonga at a like age (see Fig. 75). Moreover they 

 differ from these very little in form at first (Fig. 72)). 

 But their color is always, as their name implies, a whitish 

 gray. For the first six weeks of their existence the 

 leaves of these two species are about the same breadth; 

 those of O. alhida however are a little blunter at the 



Fig. 76. Oenothera alhida. Young 

 plant, 3V2 months old. 



