Breeding experiments which sliow that hybridisation and mutation etc. 227 



C 1. The parent types. 



Table I. 



Comparison of the main characters of the parents. 



O. graiidifliira Solander. 



O mut. rubricalyx Gates. 



Leaves of rosettes thin, nearly or quite 

 smooth, with pale red blotches on the 

 .'urface; petioles and midribs always 

 wholly green on ventral surface and 

 usually also on dorsal surface. 



Rosette stage more or less evanescent 

 and often entirely omitted, the plants 

 being physiologically '"early" in their 

 development. 



Later rosette leaves characteristic in 

 shape, long and rather broad-pointed, 

 with long, irregularly margined petiole ' ). 

 Stem leave-; thin, smooth, pointed at 

 both ends; petioles green. 



5. Buds green throughout or with a small 

 amount of red on the sepals (see fig. 5). 



6. Buds slender and rounded, sepals thin, 

 sepal tips long and setaceous. 



7. Buds wholly glabrous, or covered only 

 with a soft, inconspicuous pubescence 

 of short hairs. 



8. Flowers usually somewhat smaller than 

 in rubricalyx and others of the La- 

 marckiana series (petals 50 — 40 mm in 

 length). 



The two types differ from each other in every character throughout 

 all stages of their development. Since rubricalyx agrees in its main 

 morphological features with Lainarckiana from which it is a secondary 



(1) The most characteristic type of leaf, with prominent basal lobes, is always 

 omitted under the usual conditions of culture, so it need not be considered here. 

 Vide supra, p. 216. 



15* 



1. Leaves of rosettes thicker, more pubes- 

 cent, Q,o\\siAera.h\y- crinkled, without red 

 blotches on the blade; petioles and 

 midribs more or less bright red on the 

 ventral surface, and to a lesser extent 

 on the dorsal surface. (The ventral 

 red is nearly always well developed at 

 one stage of the rosette, but if that 

 stage is missed the plant becomes in- 

 distinguishable from rubrinervi'; until 

 the buds appear.) 



2. Rosette stage well developed, the plants 

 being physiologically later in their de- 

 velopment. 



3. Leaves of mature rosette rather narrow- 

 pointed. 



4. Stem-leaves thicker, crink'ed, broad and 

 sessile or aurate at base except the lower 

 ones: petioles red ventrally and some- 

 times less so on the dorsal surface. 



5. Hypanthium and sepals, especially their 

 median ridges, deep red (see fig. 9). 



6. Buds stouter, quadrangular, sepals thick, 

 sepal tips shorter and stouter. 



7. Buds covered with soft pubescence, and 

 in addition a conspicuous long, pointed 

 type of hair arising from red papillae. 



8. Petals about 40 mm in length. 



