Sorting and blending of unit characters. 201 



spots. But under no conditioüs have I observed red spots of this 

 character on the leaves of pycnocarpa, although I have examined care- 

 fully many rosettes during- the autumn, and the stem leaves during the 

 spring. The only reddish spots observed on the leaves of pycnocarpa 

 are those due to insect or fungus injury, such coloration for example 

 as usually accompanies injury from Septoria oenotherae. 



There is another important variation which should be taken into 

 account and clearly understood. This variation consists in the pro- 

 duction of annual individuals by biennial species. This is particularly 

 liable to happen in artificial cultures, and sometimes is encouraged by 

 the investigator for the express purpose of saving time. Where seeds are 

 sown during the winter and the seedlings have reached some size by 

 the time the growing season permits transplanting to the garden, the 

 influence of the warm summer season on these more advanced seed- 

 lings may stimulate them to early stem growth so that they flower and 

 fruit in a single season. In some cases a large percentage, or the to- 

 tal, of the culture maj^ form annuals, while a small percentage, or none, 

 pass on to the rosette form. Where the species contrasted have autum- 

 nal rosettes with strikingly different character composition, the annuals 

 fall far short of presenting the full complexion of the species. This is 

 the case with the two species used as the parents for the cultures de- 

 scribed here. The annual forms of pycnocarpa, produced in culture in 

 1913 and again in 1914 came into flower early except those of the lot 

 from a seven-carpeled pod. In the cultures of 1914, the seedlings were 

 transferred from seed pans to 2V2 inch pots, and became pot bound 

 before they were transplanted to the garden. No mature rosettes were 

 formed. The later leaves of the rosettes and the lower stem leaves of 

 these annual forms were very strongly toothed over the basal portion, 

 but did not approach the cut condition of the later leaves of mature 

 autumnal rosettes. 



In cultures where the seedlings are started early, nutans also 

 may present a percentage of true annual forms, or if pot bound as in 

 the cultures of 1914, a large percent may be annual. In the cultures 

 of 1914, some individuals of nutans came into flower early in July, 

 others in August and a very few formed only rosettes which were quite 

 well formed early in August, and characteristically mature in September. 



The annual forms probably sometimes occur under natural condi- 

 tions, i. e. on self seeded ground. Tliis may be reasonably inferred 

 from the appearance of annual forms in the culture of 1913 referred 



