THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



133 



red-brown on the inner third of each ray-flower making a 

 striking circle around the disk. In a second group, the red- 

 brown spreads throughout the ray-flowers, giving them a 

 deep orange-brown tinge which is noticeable even in the bud, 

 and though the ray-flowers are folded with their upper sur- 

 faces inward, it was possible to select the specimens with this 

 color before the rays were spread. The third, and in some 

 ways the most interesting type, is an exact reversal of the 

 first one, the ray-flowers being yellow at the base and brown- 

 ish-red at the tip. 



There seems to be no cjuestion as to the forms produced 

 being elementary species in the sense that DeVries uses this 

 term. In the wild, these, and other departures from the 

 normal, though doubtless often produced, have been swamped 

 by the abundance of the common form, but when the abnormal 

 plants are removed to the garden and the tendency to vary 

 encouraged, a large number of interesting forms can be pro- 

 duced. The most striking of those that have appeared among 

 my seedlings will now be bred by themselves and in time, no 

 doubt, some of them will find their way into the nurserymen's 

 catalogue. 



In order that the forms may not lack for literary handles, 

 I purpose giving them scientific names. Were I to follow the 

 example set by devotees of the evening primroses, violets and 

 hawthorns, I would describe these forms as good species — as 

 indeed they are, judged by the standard for hawthorn or 

 evening primrose species — but I prefer to call them varieties 

 of the common black-eyed Susan, leaving their elevation to 

 specific rank to the first experimental botanist who' tackles 

 the genus. The forms are characterized as follows : 



RuDBECKiA HiRTA var. BicoLOR u. var. Like the type 

 with the exception that the inner third of each ray-flower is 

 colored a deep red-brown. Type in the author's collection. 



