124 



VARIATION 



is true to type when grown from the seed, and its recurrence is 

 far more common than is that of gigas, which is extremely rare. 



Group (3), progressive elementary species, but weakly. Two 

 forms : 



O. albida, the albino, with whitish, narrow leaves, " appar- 

 ently incapable of producing sufficient quantities of organic 

 food." The seedlings are exceedingly delicate, and if left to 

 themselves will be speedily overgrown by their more vigorous 

 neighbors ; but if transplanted and given the best of care, they 

 make fairly vigorous plants the second year, comparing fairly 

 well with the parent stock but bearing fewer seeds. They 

 come true even to the third generation and the type remains 

 distinct. 



O. oblonga, the narrow-leaved form. It " may be grown either 

 as an annual or a biennial. In the first case it is very slender 

 and weak, bearing only small fruits and few seeds. In the alter- 

 native case, however (biennial), it becomes densely branched, 

 bearing flowers on quite a number of racemes and yielding a 

 full harvest of seeds." 



The investigator says : 



We have now given the description of seven new forms which diverge 

 in different ways from the parent type. All were absolutely constant from 

 seed. Hundreds or thousands of seedlings may have arisen, but they 

 always come true and never revert to the original O. Lamarckiana. 



He adds the remark that they have inherited the condition of 

 mutability to some extent and are evidently themselves able to 

 produce new forms, but that they do so but rarely. 



Two other forms belong to this group, O. semilata and 

 O. leptocarpa, but their characters do not merit special 

 description. 



Group (4), forms organically incomplete : 



O. lata is a pistillate variety, wholly dependent for fertiliza- 

 tion upon other forms, and it had therefore no opportunity to 

 establish its type, which, however, freely appeared. It is a "low 

 plant," but with "dense foliage and luxuriant growth." Its 

 presence can be detected in the seedling by the " broad, sinuate 

 leaves with rounded tips." Being pistillate, it produces seed 

 only when cross pollinated, in which case its characters are 



