44-6 GENERAL REVIEW. 



late rector of Winterton, Norfolk, after whom it is named. It 

 is said to be the result of a cross between P. frojidosa and P. 

 nivalis. Phlox reflexa ('Sw. Brit. Fl. Gard.,' t. 232) is pre- 

 sumably of hybrid origin, and there are numerous intermediates 

 between P. glaberrina and P. Carolina ; and P. procumbens is 

 by Professor Gray supposed to be a hybrid between P. siibu- 

 lata and P. amosna, as it is unknown as an indigenous plant. 

 I can find no record of the florists' hybrids ; and it is probable 

 that artificial cross - fertilisation has rarely if ever been at- 

 tempted, seeds having been selected from the best varieties, 

 and cross-breeding having been left to the wind or the bees. 

 There is a good field open here among these dwarf-growing 

 species of Phlox, which the hybridiser is but too apt to over- 

 look in his hurry after more showy plants. The seeds of 

 Collomia form beautiful microscopic objects, the outer coat 

 being composed of spiral tissue, which uncoils in the most 

 charming manner when a fragment is moistened on a slide. 

 In the 'Proceedings of the American Academy' (1870), Prof. 

 Asa Gray points out that " the two sorts of style which Profes- 

 sor Thurber and Professor Torrey have detected in the genus 

 Phlox (namely, that more than half the species have a 'long 

 style, so that the stigmas are often exserted, while the rest have 

 veiy short ones, bearing the stigmas low down in the tube of 

 the corolla), are somehow of dimorphic nature. Yet it is only 

 in P. subulata that I have seen both long and short styles ; and 

 here the short-styled plant has (irrespective of this character) 

 been described as a distinct species (P. nivalis, P. Hentzii), 

 and is apt to have a pair of ovules in each cell, while the long- 

 styled P. subulata rarely shows more than one. Moreover, in 

 the speciosa group this character of the style really furnishes 

 one of the most available specific distinctions. Whatever view 

 be taken of it, the case may properly be compared with 

 that of certain species of the generally dimorphic genus Prim- 

 ula, mentioned by Mr Scott (in 'Jour. Linn. Soc.,' viii. 80), 

 which, so far as known, are either long-styled or short-styled 

 without their complementary fellow. Similarly the two species 

 of Gilia composing the group which I have named Giliandra 

 might be regarded as the long-stamened form, of which the 

 short-stamened counterpart is unknown or non-existent. A 

 state of things which, .although singular, is intelligible upon the 

 doctrine of the gradual evolution ofi specific and dimorphic 

 differences." 



This last remark fully bears out my views, that wherever 

 there are traces of dimorphism, or protogynous arrangements, 

 there cross-breeding operations are easily carried on artifi- 



