Oenothera Elliptica. 



395 



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Even when they flowered the plants were still deli- 

 cate: their leaves retained the long narrow shape (Fig. 

 83 ^). The plants do not as a rule attain a great height 

 but are profusely branched and are so unlike an Oeno- 

 thera Lamarckiana that they do not look as if they could 

 be any relation to it. So unlike, indeed, are they that the 

 seedlings ran the risk of being taken for weeds and 

 thrown away.^ 



But the flowers reveal its 

 kinship with O .Lamarckiana 

 at once. They are large and 

 fine, much larger indeed for 

 so weak a species than our 

 experience of O. oblonga, O. 

 scintillans and others would 

 lead us to expect. They have 

 the same structure as those 

 of the parent species; the 

 stigma extends well above 

 the anthers and so cannot be 

 fertilized without the help 

 of insects or of the experi- 

 menter. The shape of the 

 petals however is different, as will be made sufficiently 

 evident by a comparison of Fig. 84 with Fig. 42 on page 

 218. The petals of O. Lamarckiana are broader than 

 long, indented at the tip and so more or less obcordate. 

 In the open flower their margins overlap so that a closed 

 cup is formed. The petals of 0. elliptica are elliptical ; 



^ This circumstance considerably increases the work in my ex- 

 perimental garden. Weeding ought only be done by assistants who 

 can assign individual plants to their species and can be trusted to 

 spare unknown forms. For the rarer a mutant is the more likely is 

 it to be taken for a weed. For this reason, I have usually done this 

 work myself. 



Fig. 84. Oenothera elliptica. An 

 open flower, to show the 

 rounded tips of the petals, 

 (1895). 



