1914I JEFFREY— SPORE CONDITIONS 323 



standing. The Englishman Bateson was apparently the first of 

 these to record the opinion that Oenothera Lamarckiana was a 



expression 



American 



The greatest 



difficulties which have arisen in connection with Oenothera Lamarcki- 

 ana, as studied by geneticists, have been in connection with its 

 origin, and all herbaria, which could be supposed in any way to 

 throw light on its original much discussed appearance, have been 

 ransacked, without apparently a final or decisive result. The 

 antecedents of this much disputed species, however, are now of 

 less importance in view of the fact that other and possibly all 

 species of Oenothera are likewise " mutating." The question of 

 mutation, so far as it depends for its resolution on the study of 

 Oenothera, has fortunately at the moment a much wider basis than 

 the conditions found in any individual species of the genus, con- 



cerning 



As will 



many 



thera, if not all, are in the same peculiar and obviously extremely 

 significant state as is Oenothera Lamarckiana. Attempts have 

 been made to synthesize O. Lamarckiana from other American 



some 



almost 



u 



ently the same genetical peculiarities and the same power of 

 mutating" as has Oenothera Lamarckiana itself. 

 It has long been recognized on the part of scientific students 

 of plant breeding that spore infertility is an important char- 

 acteristic of hybrids. This view, originally expressed well on to 

 a century ago, has lost none of its force in the intervening years. 

 It is further recognized quite generally that relatively fixed hybrids 

 may be produced. The opinion is at the present moment rapidly 

 gaining ground, both on the zoological and on the botanical sides, 

 that many of our wild species of plants and animals are in reality 

 more or less fixed hybrids. In the case of plants we have peculiar 

 advantages in connection with the recognition of this fact. We 



most 



Brainerd 



spontaneous 



