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Cockerell of East Las Vegas in New Mexico. It is a variety of the American cocklebur, often called sea-burdock, or the hedgehog-burweed, a stout and common weed of the western states. Its Latin name is Xanthium canadense or X. commune and the form referred to is named by Mr. Cockerell, X. Wootoni, in honor of Professor E.o. Wooton who described the first collected specimens.
The Xanthium Wootoni, above referred to, with only part of the prickles of Xanthium commune is also a very curious instance of the demonstration of the compound nature of a character. Summarizing the conclusions that may be drawn from the evidence given in this lecture, we have seen that varieties differ from elementary species in that they do not possess anything really new.
It occurs abundantly in New Mexico, always growing with the common species, and seems to be quite constant from seed. Mr. Cockerell kindly sent me some burs of both forms, and from these I raised in my garden last year a nice lot of the common, as well as of the Wootoni plants.
A close scrutiny in the native region is likely to reveal many unexpected features. A very interesting novelty has already been described in a former lecture. It is the Xanthium wootoni, discovered in the region about Las Vegas, New Mexico, by T.D.A. Cockerell.
The fact of the mutation may be very probable, but the full proof is, of course, wanting. Such is the case with the mutative origin of Xanthium commune Wootoni from New Mexico and of Oenothera biennis cruciata from Holland. The same doubt exists as to the origin of the Capsella heegeri of Solms-Laubach, and of the oldest recorded mutation, that of Chelidonium laciniatum in Heidelberg about 1600.
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