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broader and of a deeper green, as is shown by Fig. 117. De Vries 

 classified this form also as a progressive species. Albida and oblonga 

 were classified as distinct but weak species, incapable of perpetuating 

 themselves in a state of nature and hence were called "degressive." 

 The seventh form, scintillans, proved to be inconstant from the beginning, 

 self-fertilized seed always producing some lamarckiana seedlings, as 



FIG. 117. OE. lamarckiana (left) and gigas (right), flower stalks and rosettes. (From de 



Vries.) 



well as scintillans, oblonga, lata and sometimes nanella. The two new 

 forms found growing wild in 1886, Icevifolia and brevistylis, never appeared 

 among the experimental cultures but because they, like nanella, appeared 

 to have lost something that characterized lamarckiana and to be dis- 

 tinguished from it by one definite character, de Vries classified these 

 together with nanella as "regressive" species or "retrograde" varieties 

 at the same time pointing out that they possessed the qualifications of 



