Morphologie, Befruchtung, etc. — Varietäten, etc. 
167 
Compositae : Adenostemma viscosum Forst. Verschleppung der 
Früchte durch Tiere. 
Besonders sei noch hervorgehoben, dass in einer Note auf p. 
261 die neue Art: Begonia hypogaea Winkl, nova species beschrieben 
wird. Jongmans. 
Anonymus. Guide to experiments conducted at Burgoyne’s 
(University) Farm, Impington and at other centres in the 
Eastern Counties. (Cambridge Univ. Dept. of Agriculture, 
1907. 162 pp.) 
This report consists mainly of tables displaying the results of 
manurial and other agricultural experiments carried out by the 
Cambridge Department of Agriculture. The practical bearing of 
the very important breeding experiments on cereals and other vege- 
table products and on sheep is briefly explained, but the scientific 
results of these experiments are mostly described elsewhere. 
R. H. Lock. 
Boulenger, G. A., On the Variations of the Evening Prim¬ 
rose (Oenothera biennis L.). (Journal of Botany Vol. XLV. N°. 538. 
p. 353-363. 1907.) 
The author States that he is unable to confirm the distinction 
drawn by de Vries between 0. Lamarckiana and 0. biennis , but 
finds them to be connected by every possible transition. He there- 
fore opposes de Vries’ conception of species, as being dangerous 
to the time-honoured ideas of the systematists. The criticism of de 
Vries’ work is based upon two tables of measurements of 35 and 
42 flowers respectively picked from different plants and “mostly at 
random”. The first table relates to plants of O. biennis L. (vide de 
Vries) growing in waste ground near the Natural History Museum, 
South Kensington; the second set of measurements was obtained 
from plants growing at La Garde, St. Cast, on the coast of Brit¬ 
tany, and shows a certain ränge of characters Irom what was 
believed to be the true Lamarckiana to the ordinaryj type of O. 
biennis. This group of plants, the author believes, are “all descen- 
dents of O. Lamarckiana , which, when left to itself, besides produ- 
cing other variations, to be further multiplied by Crossing, revert 
to a form so closety similar to the true 0. biennis, from which it is 
probably derived, as not to be distinguishable from it.” 
In summing up, the author suggests the possibility of the Muta¬ 
tionstheorie being based upon false premises, and that de Vries 
has no justification for the assumption that] O. Lamarckiana is a 
natural species. He supposes that “The characters of several parent 
forms, which may, for all we know, have originated through fluctu- 
ating Variation, have remained latent in some individuals of O. La¬ 
marckiana and reappear in different combinations, thus producing 
the appearance of distinct “species”, each definable by several cha¬ 
racters, springing up under our eyes.” R. H. Lock. 
Hemsley, W. B., Platanthera chlorantha , Custor var. tricalcarata , 
Hemsl. (Journ. Linn. Soc. XXXVIII. 263. p. 3—5. 1907.) 
This is an instance of the conversion of the lateral or paired 
sepals into spurred organs, apparently a very rare kind of meta- 
