No. 547] GENETICAL STUDIES ON (EN OTHER A 



:;7i) 



amount of selection and every worker who is following 

 genetical methods is continuum- to differentiate, more or 

 less perfectly, strains or biotypes. I have in my own cul- 

 tures separated in "pure lines" several strains which 

 differ in the size of the flower, the height of the stigma 

 relative to the tips of the anthers, and the depth of color- 

 ation in the foliage, and these strains have held true in 

 my limited cultures. 



These points must be borne in mind in judging the 

 results of my studies, for it is one tiling to attempt the 

 synthesis of a hybrid ta.roiiomintUft similar to La ma rein- 

 ana, and it would be quite another to attempt to match 

 exactly a particular biotype of this plant. The prob- 

 abilities of obtaining a hybrid the exact counterpart of 

 a specific biotype are small; for the reason that very many 

 characters or groups of characters give to these strains 

 their peculiarities. The probabilities of obtaining a 

 hybrid the characters of which will be matched largely or 

 wholly by forms of Lamar ckiana are, however, in the 

 writer's opinion, excellent and such a type is meant when 

 we speak of a hybrid iaxnnomxcaWy similar to Lamarck- 

 iana or indistinguishable from it. 



The announcement of Gates ( '10) that certain marginal 

 notes in a copy of Bauhin's "Pinax," 1623, give an accu- 

 rate description of Laniarckiaua and establish its pres- 

 ence in Europe at this early date has proved to be a false 

 alarm. These notes consist of matter, copied on the 

 margin of a page, from the longer description of Lysi- 

 machia lutea corniculata found in the appendix (pp. 520, 

 521) of the "Pinax." The readiness with which Gates 

 and Hill ( '11) have accepted as reliable the statement of 

 Bauhin that the flowers of this form are 3 inches long 

 above the ovary, in the face of the statement a few lines 

 below that the capsules become 2-3 inches long (a mani- 

 fest absurdity), is inexplicable to the writer. It shows a 

 naive confidence in the descriptions of the early botanists 

 which is scarcely to be expected in the consideration of so 

 difficult a problem as the origin of 0. Lamarckiana. 



