Sorting and blending of unit characters. 221 



matured early. Seed of pyenocarpa sown directly in the garden in 

 a row parallel to pycnella flowered soon after pycnella of the same 

 culture, but continued to flower until frost. The only early flowering 

 annuals of nutans which I have obtained were the few which appeared 

 on dry untilled soil where the seed was sown the previous autumn. 

 These were small stunted individuals, smaller than the early annuals 

 of pycnella in cultivated soil. They matured early producing a far less 

 abundant crop of pods and seed than the early maturing individuals of 

 pycnella. The seed of hyhrida pycnella as well as that from all crosses 

 in which pycnella was one of the parents, germinated quickly and abund- 

 antly, the seedlings are strong and grow rapidly. 



Another feature in which the annual forms of pycnella differ from 

 either parent is the less dense inflorescence. Consequently the pods 

 are not so crowded as they are in either parent grown as biennials, 

 though the pods are large and crowded with seeds. So far as the 

 parents are concerned, the biennial forms are stocky, and there is a 

 great tendency to fasciation in the stocky individuals on rich soil, much 

 more so in pyenocarpa than in nutans. In fasciated forms the in- 

 florescence is always more dense, and the pods very much crowded. 

 A very crowded condition of the inflorescence in case where distinct 

 fasciation of the axis is not clear may, in reality, represent an incipient 

 state of fasciation. No fasciation has been as yet observed in ptycnella, 

 whether annual or biennial forms. While the petals of pycnella are 

 usually of the same size as those of pyenocarpa, and smaller than 

 those of nutans, under certain conditions not yet determined they are 

 larger even than those of nutans, in size sometimes resembling those 

 of nutella. 



In the Fl blend hybrid, hyhrida nutella, besides the sterility 

 resulting from the lack of correlation in some part of the reproductive 

 machinery, there are some striking modifications in the inflorescence. 

 As already stated, the petals are larger than those of nutans which in 

 turn has larger petals than pyenocarpa. The flower buds also average 

 longer, and the spread of the flower is greater^). The cause of this 



^) In Oe. pyenocarpa the spread of the open flower is 20 — 35 mm, the petals 

 average about !."> X 15 mm. 



In Oe. nutans the spread of the open flower is 35 — 42 mm, the petals are 

 18 — 22 mm long X 15 — 20 mm broad. 



In Oe. hybrida nutella the spread of the open flower is 50 — 55 mm, the petals 

 are 20—25 mm X 20 — 22 mm broad. 



