VOLUME XLVI NUMBER 1 
BOTANICAL GAZETTE 
FULY 7908 
A STUDY OF REDUCTION IN OENOTHERA 
 RUBRINERVIS 
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE HULL BOTANICAL LABORATORY III 
REGINALD RUGGLES GATES 
(WITH PLATES I-II1) 
The present contribution is a statement of some of the results 
obtained in the cytological study of Oenothera Lamarckiana and its 
mutants. Since these results have a more or less direct bearing on a 
wide range of fact and theory in various fields, their full discussion is 
reserved for a future time. The facts presented in this communica- 
tion will be taken almost wholly from the study of O. rubrinervis, one 
of the most vigorous of the mutants. Other papers will be presented 
later, giving the further evidence upon which the conclusions of this 
paper rest, and attempting to indicate their bearing on the general 
problems of cytology and variation involved. 
Material 
The plants from which the material for these studies was obtained 
were grown from pedigreed seeds of DeVries, the purity of these 
cultures being further proven, in some cases, by carrying on the pedi- 
gree for another generation before collections were made. The 
results of these cultures, which are still being carried forward to later 
generations, will be published at another time in connection with an 
account of other studies on variation and hybridization in Oenothera. 
In this way it is hoped, if possible, to correlate the cytological data 
with the work in hybridization and variation. It seems to the writer 
that only by thus combining cytological with experimental studies is an 
explanation of the peculiar and remarkable phenomena of variation 
exhibited by the Oenotheras to be reached. 
I 
