468 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
torily ruled out, there is the possibility that the form in question is not itself 
a mutant, but the offspring of a mutant which appeared in some preceding 
generation. This last question, of course, can never be cleared up in any 
instance, but is a consideration of no essential consequence. TRABUTS reports 
finding near the city of Constantine in Algeria a spineless individual of the 
wild artichoke (Cynara Cardunculus) in an extensive population of the ordi- 
nary spiny plants. While considerable variation is found in the vegetative 
characters of C. Cardunculus, no similar individual has ever been reported 
before. This plant being wholly unarmed would undoubtedly have disap- 
peared undiscovered had it not chanced to grow within the inclosure about 
the waterworks reservoir of Constantine. The seedlings of this spineless 
individual have not yet been grown, but it seems probable that it will bree 
true. There are spineless varieties of cultivated artichokes (C. Scolymus), 
and the possibility of hybridization is not positively precluded, but is rendered 
less probable by the facts that none of the latter are grown in the vicinity of 
Constantine and that the new form seems to be typical C. Cardunculus 10 
everything but the spines. : 
uch more important than this supposed mutant of Cynara is the dis- 
covery of a new form of Capsella,4 of which a single specimen was found 
growing among an abundance of C. bursa-pastoris at Izeste, Basses-Pyrénées, 
France. The history of this new species, which is to be known as C. Vigusert 
Blaringhem, parallels that of the celebrated Capsella Heegeri, but C. Viguiert 
shows a variation of the capsules in the opposite direction from that presented 
by C. Heegeri. A very large majority of the capsules have four valves of the 
same general form as those of bursa-pastoris, placed at right angles to each 
other, but the number of valves varies from 2 to 8. Counts of nearly LO? 
fruits, taken at random from plants grown from the seeds of the original 
specimen, showed the following frequencies: 2-valved, 2; 3-valved, 81; 
4-valved, 8450; 5-valved, 301; 6-valved, 288; 7-valved, 24; 8-valved, 16. 
The new species is normally fasciated, and breeds true to this character 48 
well as to the high number of valves, except. when subjected to unfavorable 
conditions. As grown at Bellevue, France, the leaves of C. Viguzert ue 
almost entirely unlobed, while the leaves from a number of pedigrees e es 
bursa-pastoris, also secured from Izeste and grown under the same conditions, 
had always the complex lobing characteristic of the reviewer’s type © op 
teris. Tlie author lays particular stress upon the fact that several other 
species of Cruciferae possess 4-winged capsules. He names several species 
of Tetrapoma which if 2-valved would be classified as Nasturtium; Holar- 
’ Traput, L., Sur une mutation inerme du Cynara Cardunculus. Bull. Soc. Bot. 
France 57: 350-354. pls. 15, 16. 1910, : 
* BrarincHem, L., Les mutations de la bourse a pasteur (Capsella pee 
Solms, C. Viguieri, n. sp.). Bull. Sci. France et Belg. VII. 44:275-397- e * 
10. 1gtt. 
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