THE TIGRIDIA 143 



And the compromise has been found, as every- 

 one knows nowadays, in a recognition of the fact 

 that time is long, and the further fact that natu- 

 ral selection may be instrumental in maintaining 

 the fixity of a race, provided the environing con- 

 ditions are unchanged, just as it may sometimes 

 be instrumental in somewhat rapidly changing 

 the form of a race when the environing condi- 

 tions have altered. 



From the outset I found that the various tiger 

 flowers throve in my grounds, particularly in the 

 sandy land at Sebastopol, and in sandy beds 

 especially prepared for them at Santa Rosa. 



As before said, I began at once crossing and 

 hybridizing the various species and varieties, 

 and of course carried out selection among the 

 seedlings and made new crossings, according to 

 my usual custom. The type species with which 

 the experiments began was the Tigridia pavonia, 

 of which there are numerous varieties. Another 

 form known as the conchi flora or Shell Flower 

 was utilized, and subsequently the T. huccifera, 

 a form more recently introduced from Mexico. 



An especial effort was made to introduce also 

 into the combination the strains of a plant of yet 

 another genus, the Herbertia platcnsis. This is 

 a tall-growing plant bearing close resemblance 

 to the Tigridias, and by some botanists classified 



