8 A Study of the Dandelion. [January,. 
sessile and thickened leaves, other plants long petioled and spat- 
ufate-like thin leaves. In all the forms some plants may be looked 
for with hairy and roughened leaves. 
In view of the limited extent of the present culture of the dan- 
delion, and the short time since its cultivation was first attempted, 
as well as to the fact that its present culture about Geneva seems 
unknown, it seems unreasonable to infer that our plants are 
escapes from cultivation, and much more-so when it is consid- 
ered that these same described types are common elsewhere in 
Western New York. If not escapes from cultivation the infer- 
ence seems strongly established that our cultivated varieties did. 
not originate under cultivation, but are simply selections from 
wild types. If this be granted it may be legitimately questioned 
whether other of our cultivated form-species in other plants are 
not likewise of natural origin. 
_A careful investigation into the history of the origin of our 
cultivated varieties fully justifies the statement that I have as yet 
secured no data which justifies the belief that form-species in cul- 
ture are other than of natural origin, and I have secured much 
evidence ir favor of the view that form-species are introductions 
from natural variations. Before, however, such a radical belief 
can receive countenance, much must be done in the herbarium 
study of varieties as collected from various sources, in order that 
we may have wild forms to which our cultivated types can be re- 
ferred. Our so-called modern vegetables, introduced as novelties, 
often seem to be such only because we are unfamiliar with what 
our predecessors possessed. Thus the figure that Pinaeus gives, 
_in 1561, of a lettuce answers to our stone tennis-ball variety as 
closely as do the figures in our seed catalogues to the varieties 
whose name they carry; the deer-tongue lettuce introduced as a 
novelty in 1883 seems nearly identical with the Lactuca folio 
oblongo acuto of Bauhin’s Prodromus, 1671; a large number of 
our capsicums or peppers seem to be identical with the varieties 
figured in Hortus Eystettensis, 1623; new types of squash fol- 
lowed the appearance of the Valparaiso from Chili in the early 
part of the present century, etc., etc. 
Under the hypothesis that the form-species of cultivation are 
_ originally from nature, we can explain the permanency of these 
form-species, and their resistance to change from cross fertiliza- 
tion, the tendency seeming strongly towards trueness to type, and 
the purging themselves from contaminations unless restrained 
