REPORT FOR 1 908. 
381 
(in the other types hairiness is a variable and inconstant character) ; 
and (3) the alveolate character of the ripe receptacle. The change 
from the Guernsey sands to the Glamorgan clays completely alters the 
external form and general appearance of the plant. The characters 
given above remain constant. This is, doubtless, the plant figured 
by Sowerby. It has physiological characters which separate it 
sharply from the other types. A generation =100 days. 
The radiate form with short, sometimes almost erect, often 
quilled and very distinctly tridentate rays is the hybrid of erectus, 
var. radiatns, with one of the non -radiate types, generally erectus. 
The offspring of this hybrid segregate according to Mendel’s 
law. In one test, of seeds taken from one plant, which comprised 
449 individuals, the results were ; — crectus individuals : erectus^ var. 
radiatus individuals: hybrid individuals: 109 : 114 : 226 — a very 
close approximation to the ratio i : i : 2. 
The hybrid prcecox X erectus, var. radiatus combines two pairs 
of characters and the progeny is certainly made up of nine types. 
The numerical results need further elucidation. 
All these types are easily recognisable when pure-bred colonies 
are examined in flower. It is very difficult to identify them in the 
field in areas where hybridization has been going on. 
Herbarium specimens, often reduced in size for drying, give 
poor ideas of these forms, yet nevertheless suffice to fix the type. 
There must be many more of these segregates in Great Britain 
alone. Owing to the facility with which they hybridize, pedigree 
cultures are really necessary for their “ critical ” study. — A. H. 
Trow. 
Although the method of research followed in the cultivation 
of these forms is in the highest degree praiseworthy, and likely to 
lead to results of great interest, all botanists must deplore the fact 
that following the example of De Vries, it has been thought necessary 
to bestow specific names on these mutations. Our nomenclature 
is already overburdened without the addition of these “ pseudo- 
species ” of Senecio, and it would have been preferable to have called 
both these and De Vries’s CEnothera, “ forms ” or “ varieties.” — J. A. 
Wheldon. 
The various cross fertilizations which produce '■'‘radiatus^'' 
point very distinctly to a common origin of the parents of each 
combination ; and raises the question as to whether all the segregates 
enumerated deserve more than varietal names. — W. Bell. 
The terminological difficulty is a serious one. Perhaps the 
simplest solution is to recognise primary and secondary species, and 
to adopt for these a corresponding binomial and trinomial nomen- 
clature. The radiate types, which are true “ varieties ” in De Vries’s 
sense of the term, could then be arranged as varieties of the secon- 
dary (or sub-) species. The acceptance of Mr. Wheldon’s proposal 
