538 Mutations 



capable of producing sufficient quantities of or- 

 ganic food. The young seedling-plants are soon 

 seen to lag behind, and if no care is taken of 

 them they are overgrown by their neighbors. 

 It is necessary to take them out, to transplant 

 them into pots with richly manured soil, and 

 to give them all the care that should be given 

 to weak and sickly plants. If this is done fully 

 grown rosettes may be produced, which are 

 strong enough to keep through the winter. In 

 this case the individual leaves become stronger 

 and broader, with oblong blades and long 

 stalks, but retaining their characteristic whitish 

 color. 



In the second year the stems become relative- 

 ly stout. Not that they become equal to those 

 of Lamarckiana, but they become taller than 

 might have been expected from the weakness of 

 the plants in the previous stages. The flowers 

 and racemes are nearly as large as those of the 

 parent-form, the fruits only a little thinner and 

 containing a smaller quantity of seed. From 

 these seeds I have grown a second and a third 

 generation, and observed that the plants remain 

 true to their type. 



0. oblonga may be grown either as an annual, 

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

 slender and weak, bearing only small fruits and 

 few seeds. In the alternative case, however, it 



