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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLVI 



the best that the gardener's art (probably in large part 

 selection more or less in "pure lines") has been able to 

 accomplish. 



There have, however, twice come to me seed of La- 

 marckiana through different sources (all originally from 

 De Vries) that has given numbers of plants with much 

 smaller flowers, but otherwise presenting essentially the 

 same characters as the large-flowered types. From 

 such plants I have had no difficulty in establishing strains 

 (B, D, Y, and Z) in which the petals measure about 

 2.5 cm. (for figure, see Davis, '11, p. 216). The strains 

 have been perfectly true through two generations, 

 although the cultures have been small. The stigmas 

 in these plants are about on the level of the tips of 

 the anthers, sometimes a little above, in one strain 

 (B) somewhat below. In this respect the flowers resem- 

 ble those of biennis in sharp contrast to some of the large- 

 flowered Lamarckiana in which the stigma is 6-7 mm. 

 above the tips of the anthers, even higher than is typical 

 of grandiflora. The point should be emphasized that 

 when these small-flowered plants are grown side by side 

 with the large-flowered forms there is no hint of impor- 

 tant differences between the plants until the time of 

 flowering, when the large and small buds first clearly 

 define the two types. 



Some authors will refuse to admit that the small- 

 flowered plants are Lamarckiana. They will insist that 

 the true Lamarckiana is always large-flowered and that 

 these variants are "mutants" or perhaps aberrant types. 

 Yet the fact remains that the large- and small-flowered 

 types are indistinguishable in taxonomic practise except 

 for the bud and flower characters, and the writer can 

 but believe that the large-flowered forms have been 

 steadily selected by those who have for so many years 

 carried Lamarckiana along to its present state. 



Whether the small-flowered forms illustrate reversion 

 towards a biennis type of flower is a matter worthy of 

 critical attention. The behavior of my hybrids between 



