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The yellow color is paler and the petals are smoother. Later, in the fall, on the weaker side branches these differences increase. The laevifolia petals become smaller and are often not emarginated at the apex, becoming ovate instead of obcordate. This shape is often the most easily recognized and most striking mark of the variety.
It is simply impossible to tell from which individual plants they have been derived. The laevifolia and the brevistylis have been found almost every year, the first always recurring on the same spot, the second on various parts of the original field. It is therefore allowable to assume a common origin for all the observed individuals of either strain.
Briefly considering the different forms, we may state that the full experimental proof has been given for the origin of gigas and rubrinervis, for albida and oblonga, and even for nanella, which is to be considered as of a varietal nature; with lata the decisive experiment is excluded by its unisexuality. laevifolia and brevistylis were found originally in the field, and never appeared in my cultures.
Harmless or even slightly useless ones have been seen to maintain themselves in the field during the seventeen years of my research, as proved by Oenothera laevifolia and Oenothera brevistylis. Most of the others quickly disappear. This failure of a large part of the productions of nature deserves to be considered at some length.
The unevenness of the surface of the leaves may increase as in lata, or decrease as in laevifolia. The tendency to become annual prevails in rubrinervis, but gigas tends to become biennial. Some are rich in pollen, while scintillans is poor. Some have large seeds, others small. Lata has become pistillate, while brevistylis has nearly lost the faculty to produce seeds.
In respect to the reproductive organs, the fertility and abundance of good seed, the laevifolia is by no means inferior or superior to the original species. O. brevistylis, or the short-styled evening primrose, is the most curious of all my new forms. It has very short styles, which bring the stigmas only up to the throat of the calyx tube, instead of upwards of the anthers.
It is readily granted that such special preparation may occur, because the great numbers in which our dwarf variety of the Oenothera are yearly produced are suggestive of such a condition. On the other hand, the laevifolia and brevistylis mutations have not been repeated, at least not in a visible way.
Of varieties with a negative attribute, or real retrograde varieties, I have found three, all of them in a flowering condition in the field. I have given them the names of laevifolia, brevistylis and nanella. The laevifolia, or smooth-leaved variety, was one of the very first deviating types found in the original field. This was in the summer of 1887, seventeen years ago.
Rubrinervis is a mutation from Lamarckiana, chiefly distinguished by red midribs in the leaves and red stripes on the sepals. When propagated from self-fertilised seed it produced about 95 per cent. of offspring with the same characters, and the remaining 5 per cent. mutants, one of which was laevifolia which had been found by De Vries among plants growing wild at Hilversum.
On the original field the laevifolia and brevistylis have held their own during sixteen years and probably more, without, however, being able to increase their numbers to any noticeable extent. Others perish as soon as they make their appearance, or a few individuals are allowed to bloom, but probably leave no progeny.
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