84 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



the rejection of this supposition than in case of the similar 

 one that intermediates between IT. gloriosa, Y. recurvi folia 

 and Y. flexilis may be the results of various intercrossing, 

 since the possibility of crossing Y. gloriosa and Y. flaccida 

 has been demonstrated by some of the experiments referred 

 to above; and M. Deleuil's selection of 150 very diverse 

 seedlings from a single one of his crosses gives reason to 

 suppose that on the one hand a number of different aber- 

 rants of these species might have come from even one cross 

 seeding, while on the other hand several well verified hybridi- 

 zations between Y. gloriosa and Y. flaccida might perhaps 

 fail to produce typical recurwfotia. The occurrence of the 

 latter along the South Atlantic coast of the United States, 

 while it suggests the spontaneous hybrid origin of the typi- 

 cal form of this species, does not preclude the possibility 

 that the same form, and particularly its aberrant varieties, 

 may have originated by a comparable process in gardens, 

 where, in fact, they are alone known at present. 



Though Y. gloriosa and Y. fllamentosa are typically 

 very dissimilar in aspect as well as in technical characters, 

 I have seen side by side on the sand dunes of Tybee Isl- 

 and, Georgia, an acaulescent plant of the spontaneous 

 variety plicata of the former and a normal plant of the 

 form of the latter known as var. concava, so similar in 

 foliage appearance that it was only on close approach that 

 the thinner texture and freely filiferous margin of the 

 leaves of the latter served for its recognition, and I should 

 be even more disposed to believe Y. gloriosa plicata a 

 hybrid between Y. gloriosa and Y. filamentosa concava 

 than to accept the suggestion of Koch concerning Y. re- 

 curvifolia. 



As to Y. gloriosa, I have long thought that I saw in its 

 characters somewhat of a blending of those of Y. filamentosa 

 and Y. aloifolia,ihe leaves having something of the firmness 

 and thickness of texture of the latter, and something of the 

 thinness and concavity of the former or its variety, with. 



