THE SNAPDRAGON AND LIN ARIA FAMILY. 533 



which regular -flowered, fine -spurred sports sometimes make 

 their appearance, which it might be quite possible to perpet- 

 uate. A race of these regular- flowered Linarias would be 

 very curious and beautiful. L. spetiosa is often grown as a 

 flower-garden annual, and L. triorjiithophora is a curious and 

 beautiful plant, much grown in German gardens, but neglect- 

 ed in this country. L. maroccana, a showy purple-flowered 

 annual from Marocco (see 'Bot. Mag.,' t. 5983), and L. hetero- 

 phylla, a whitish-flowered plant from the same locality (see ' Bot. 

 Mag.,' t. 6041), well deserve attention. Hybridised with each 

 other, or L. vulgaris, one might obtain a beautiful race of 

 showy annuals. Nearly all the species of this genus are 

 beautiful, and here is a good field for the intelligent hybridiser. 

 L. vulgaris and L. purpurea have already given numerous 

 hybrids, of which M. Naudin writes as follows (see ' Jour. 

 Royal Hort. Soc.,' 1866, p. 6): "I observed in 1863 and 

 1864 the sixth and seventh generations of a hybrid which I 

 have kept for several years, Linaria purpurea-vulgaris, both 

 represented by some hundreds of individuals. A good number 

 of these last reverted some completely, the others partially to 

 the form of Z. vulgaris with yellow flowers; a small number to 

 those of Z. purpurea with purple flowers. Others still more 

 numerous inclined towards neither the one nor the other, but 

 nevertheless did not resemble the hybrid of the first genera- 

 tion. There were all possible kinds of variation tall or dwarf 

 stature, broad or narrow leaves, the corolla deformed in vari- 

 ous ways, discoloured, or exhibiting unusual tints ; and out of 

 all these combinations there did not result two individuals 

 which were perfectly alike. It is very clear that we have to do 

 here with irregular variation, which engenders only individu- 

 alities, and that uniformity is not established between the 

 descendants of hybrids, except on the condition that it resumes 

 the normal livery of the parent species." Now here, as it 

 seems to me, we have dissociated or unbalanced characteristics, 

 partly due to the unison of the latent and evident characters 

 of the parent species, and partly to cultivation. In some of 

 these hybrids the characteristics of Z. purpurea predominate 

 that is to say, they either crush out, or at all events 

 render latent, the characteristics of Z. vulgaris, while some- 

 times the reverse of this is the case. Some of these hy- 

 brids, however, are apparently more or less intermediate 

 that is to say, the mixed characters each to a certain extent 

 hold their own, a sort of " split -the- difference " compromise 

 being made between them ; but in no two cases is there any 

 fixity of character no tendency to form a permanent race. 



