Oenothera Lata. 413 



reveal the identity of the species (Fig. 91 A). The tips 

 of the leaves are rounded and not pointed, which makes 

 them shorter. About a month after germination this 

 character is so clearly expressed that I choose this stage 

 for sorting out the Lamarckianas from the latas in the 

 results of crosses. This form of the leaf is maintained 

 through the whole life of the rosette (Fig. 92) and on 

 the lower part of the stem. 



The wrinkling and distortion which so detract from 

 the beauty of the leaves in O Lamarckiana are much 

 more pronounced in 0. lata; and are very rarely absent 

 (Figs. 57 and 58, pp. 310 and 311). This feature may 

 be brought about by the relativel}^ small margin of the 

 leaf. 



On the whole, the abnormal breadth of the leaves is 

 maintained up the stem even to the tops of the inflores- 

 cences and branches (Fig. 89). But, as in the case of 

 Lamarckiana itself, the leaves become gradually more 

 pointed and narrower the further up they are. Our 

 figure (Fig. 89 A, A') brings this out very clearly; a 

 fine point is seen on the otherwise rounded tip of the 

 leaf. If we look at the lowest leaf which bears a flower 

 in its axil or an immature fruit and compare it with a 

 corresponding leaf on a Lamarckiana plant (Fig. 89 

 B, B'), we shall find that the relative breadths are as 4 to 

 3. Higher up in the inflorescence this difference in- 

 creases ; the leaves, from whose axils the flowers which 

 open in August arise, are about twice as broad as the 

 corresponding ones in the parent species. And if we 

 look at a small branch from above it looks like a thick 

 rosette of broad leaves (Fig. 89 C) whereas in such a 

 view of Lamarckiana the leaves are reduced to small and 

 narrow bracts forming a kind of rosette of pointed leaves. 



