New Species of Oenothera 539 



becomes densely branched, bearing flowers on 

 quite a number of racemes and yielding a full 

 harvest of seeds. But it always remains a small 

 plant, reaching about half the height of that of 

 Lamarckiana. 



When very young it has broader leaves, but 

 in the adult rosettes the leaves become very nar- 

 row, but fleshy and of a bright green color. 

 They are so crowded as to leave no space be- 

 tween them unoccupied. The flowering spikes 

 of the second year bear long leaf-like bracts 

 under the first few flowers, but those arising 

 later are much shorter. Numerous little cap- 

 sules cover the axis of the spike after the fading 

 away of the petals, constituting a very striking 

 differentiating mark. This species also was 

 found to be quite constant, if grown from pure 

 seed. 



We have now given the descriptions 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 0. LamarcJciana- 

 type. From this they have inherited the condi- 

 tion of mutability, either completely or partly, 

 and according to this they may be able to pro- 

 duce new forms themselves. But this occurs 

 only rarely, and combinations of more than one 



