Oenothera Siihlinearis. 401 



flowers were relatively large. They were self- fertilized 

 in parchment bags. But the harvest was very scanty. 

 Only 31 seeds germinated, and these were transplanted 

 with the greatest care and cultivated further. 



The composition of the progeny was by far the most 

 varied that I have observed ; there occurred : 



19 0. Lamarckiana 1 0. alhlda 



3 0. subline aris 3 0. suhovata 



1 0. lata 10. gig as 



1 O. nanella 2 0. ohlonga 



I weeded out the Lamarckianas as strong rosettes at 

 the end of June, when there could no longer be any 

 doubt as to their identity. The O. snhlinearis and 0. 

 subovata remained in the rosette stage and died in the 

 winter. All the remaining plants flowered, some in 

 August and September, and some (0. gigas) in Novem- 

 ber of the same year. Their identity with plants grown 

 from the seed of mutants of the same name was fully 

 established especially in the case of the rarer forms 0. 

 albida and 0. gigas. 



This extraordinary richness in mutants is probably 

 connected in some way with the smallness of the harvest 

 as was believed to be the case in the experiment described 

 on page 264. This highly important point needs further 

 investigation. 



The second plant belonged likewise to the Laniarc- 

 kiana-fd.m\\y ; it appeared in 1895 and flowered in 1896. 

 One of its first year's radical leaves is shown in Fig. 86, 

 two of the petals which it bore in 1897 are shown in 

 Fig. 87. The plant was pale green and so weak that 

 there seemed very little chance of its surviving the win- 

 ter. But it flowered rather well : there were about a 



