Thiselton-Dyer . — Morphological Notes . 437 
1. K.flctmmea ? x K.Bentii $ . About fifty seedlings were 
raised and grew vigorously. The middle figure of Plate XXII 
represents a young seedling about fifteen months old. It will 
be noticed that the lower and earliest leaves are intermediate, 
as was to be expected, between those of the two parents. 
They are neither flat and obovate nor simply stiletto-shaped, 
but are thickly fleshy and oblanceolate. Plants of the two 
parents of about the same age are shown on the same plate, 
K . flammed on the left, K. Bentii on the right. The three 
figures tell their own story. 
Very soon, however, the characters of the hybrid entirely 
changed. The leaves ceased to be entire, but became strongly 
pinnatisect with segments which were less and less flat and 
more and more stiletto-shaped. In these characters and in 
the mode of their development the whole batch of seedlings 
were absolutely uniform. 
On Plate XXIII the details of the leaf-forms of the hybrid 
and its two parents are shown more in detail. It is to be 
observed that the earliest leaves of a shoot are always more 
or less rudimentary. And it is well known that rudimentary 
structures, not being immediately adaptive, often afford 
evidence of ancestral influence which is afterwards obliterated. 
In each case in the plate the rudimentary as well as the 
mature forms of the leaves are shown. In the case of 
K. flammea (Fig. 2) there is nothing that is not merely 
ordinary or which calls for remark. In the hybrid (Fig. 3) 
the earliest leaf may be thought to recall the crenulation of 
K . flammea exaggerated into teeth. But no crenulation will 
explain the pinnatisect forms into which the dentation is after- 
wards developed. In the case of K. Benlii(Fig. 1 ) it occasionally, 
though rarely, happens that one of the rudimentary leaves is 
strongly two-toothed. It seems possible, therefore, that the 
extraordinary character of the foliage of the hybrid derives 
from this parent, in which it was latent. 
But I will pass on for the moment to the further develop- 
ment of the hybrid. The plants were grown on, and in their 
second year attained rapidly a height of about three feet, 
