124 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [AUGUST 



These two forms of Lychnis from Germany are with apparent 

 good reason classified by German taxonomists as distinct species, 

 the white-flowered form being called Melandrium album Garcke, 

 and the purple-flowered form M. rubrum Garcke. Melandrium 

 album, as it appears in my cultures, has relatively narrow, spatulate, 

 moderately ascending rosette-leaves of a rather dull dark green; 

 the corollas are white/ slender, and long-exserted from the calyx- 

 tube ; the styles are long and slender, with inconspicuous stigmatic 

 papillae. The plants are easily grown as annuals by early sowing. 

 Melandrium rubrum Garcke, grown under the same conditions, 

 has the rosette-leaves broader, with more rounded apices; the 

 leaves are nearly horizontal, a little darker green, and more shining. 

 The corollas are reddish-purple, shorter, scarcely extending beyond 

 the mouth of the calyx; the styles shorter and relatively heavy, 

 with prominent stigmatic papillae. A very small percentage of 

 the plants are forced to bloom as annuals, even when seeds are sown 

 early in February. In so far as visible characters are concerned, 

 these two forms have shown but slight fluctuations, except that 

 in M. album the calyx varies from plain green through green 

 striped with purple to a rather deep dull crimson. They have 

 kept quite 'distinct from each other in regard to the characteristics 

 enumerated, but because they breed together with undiminished 

 fertility and because I have many other strains showing similar 

 differences and various degrees of intermediacy, I must continue 

 for the sake of convenience the use of the Linnean name (Lychnis 

 dioica) for the entire aggregation. To what extent the other forms 

 in my cultures may have been derived from hybridizations between 

 M . album and M . rubrum cannot be surmised, but all strains which 

 I have thus far found in America have presented one or more 

 characteristics which are not directly traceable to either of the 

 German forms, nor obviously derivable from them by recombina- 

 tions of their characters. For instance, my original material of 

 this species, collected at Cold Spring Harbor, has considerably 

 lighter green foliage than either M. album or M. rubrum, and from 

 the vicinity of Harrisburg, Pa., I have secured a "chlorina" 

 (CORRENS 3) variety having light yellow-green foliage. 



Three crosses were made in 1910 between the German Melan- 



