New Species of Oenothera 529 



instead of obcordate. This shape is often the 

 most easily recognized and most striking mark 

 of the variety. In respect to the reproductive 

 organs, the fertility and abundance of good seed, 

 the laevifolia is by no means inferior or superior 

 to the original species. 



0. brevistylis, or the short-styled evening- 

 primrose, is the most curious of all my new 

 forms. It has very short styles, which bring 

 the stigmas only up to the throat of the calyx- 

 tube, instead of upwards of the anthers. The 

 stigmas themselves are of a different shape, 

 more flattened and not cylindrical. The pollen 

 falls from the anthers abundantly on them, and 

 germinates in the ordinary manner. 



The ovary which in lamarckiana and in 

 all other new forms is wholly underneath the 

 calyx-tube, is here only partially so. This 

 tube is inserted at some distance under its 

 summit. The insertion divides the ovary into 

 two parts : an upper and a lower one. The up- 

 per part is much reduced in breadth and some- 

 what attenuated, simulating a prolongation of 

 the base of the style. The lower part is also 

 reduced, but in another manner. At the time 

 of flowering it is like the ovary of lamarckiana, 

 neither smaller nor larger. But it is reached 

 by only a very few pollen-tubes, and is there- 

 fore always incompletely fertilized. It does 



