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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLV 



rate records of the histories of the various plants grown, 

 constitute an important field. Thus, in the Missouri 

 Botanical Garden, there are grown every year numerous 

 plants of Bellis perennis "delicata." In 1906 the seed 

 for these specimens was obtained from a Philadelphia 

 seed firm. The seed was sown and the plants were 

 handled in the usual manner until they finally found their 

 way to the beds used for decorative purposes. It was 

 while the plants, several thousands in number, were in 

 this position, that the attention of Mr. Shelby Jones, at 

 that time a student at the garden, was attracted to a plant 

 because of the abnormal character of its flowers. In the 

 capitula of this specimen the raynowers had either disap- 

 peared, or, what is move probable, had been replaced by 



disc-flowers. The result was a rather striking, maroon-red 



For in the normal form of the variety under cultivation 

 the upper surface of the ligules was either white or rose- 

 colored, while the lower surface was red. In the discoid 

 variety, owing to the tubular nature of the transformed 



