424 Tricotylous Races. 



either been bought or obtained by exchange, in order to 

 compare them with my own strains. In the autumn I 

 saved the seed of a number of separate specimens and 

 sowed it in the hope of finding a tricotylous intermediate 

 race amongst them, inasmuch as my own races and vari- 

 eties offered no prospect of producing them, as has al- 

 ready been mentioned for a special case, that of Oeno- 

 thera ruhriiiervis (p. 383). This hope was fulfilled by 

 a single specimen, all the remaining lots of seed giving the 

 usual very low values of from to 4%. This specimen 

 was a plant which was noticed by some striking distinc- 

 tive marks. It was taller and slenderer in growth than 

 all the other species, more than 2 meters high, with a long 

 raceme interrupted in places by the failure of some of the 

 lower buds. Its flowers were of the size and structure 

 of those of 0. biennis and, like this form, were self- 

 fertilized within the buds before their opening. Its pro- 

 geny have kept true to this type through a series of gen- 

 erations. 



This stray plant produced from its seeds, in a lot 

 of 300 seedlings, 7% tricotyls, and in another estimation, 

 amongst 2430 seedlings, 8% tricotyls, of which 143 were 

 tricotyls in the restricted sense, 59 were hemi-tricotyls, 

 and 4 tetracotyls. Whether the parent itself had three 

 cotyledons, I do not of course know. 



Of this crop the tricotylous seedlings only, and of 

 these only the strongest, were planted out on the 2d of 

 April, 1896. In the middle of July, some few days be- 

 fore they flowered, the whole bed was covered with a 

 great cage of fine cloth. The cloth was removed at the 

 beginning of September and at the same time all the 

 open flowers and buds were removed from the plants. 

 Seeds were saved separately from 54 individuals and 300 



