One of them is called _scintillans_ or the shiny evening-primrose, because its leaves are of a deep green color with smooth surfaces, glistening in the sunshine. On the young rosettes these leaves are somewhat broader, and afterwards somewhat narrower than those of _O. lamarckiana_ at the corresponding ages. The plants themselves always remain small, never reaching the stature of the ancestral type. They are likewise much less branched. They can easily be cultivated in annual generations, but then do not become as fully developed and as fertile, as when flowering in the second year. The flowers have the same structure as those of the _lamarckiana_, but are of a smaller size. [544] Fertilizing the flowers artificially with their own pollen, excluding the visiting insects by means of paper bags, and saving and sowing the seed of each individual separately, furnishes all the requisites for the estimation of the degree of stability of this species. In the first few weeks the seed-pans do not show any unequality, and often the young plants must be replanted at wider intervals, before anything can be made out with certainty. But as soon as the rosettes begin to fill it becomes manifest that some of them are more backward than others in size. Soon the smaller ones show their deeper green and broader leaves, and thereby display the attributes of the _scintillans_. The other grow faster and stronger and exhibit all the characteristics of ordinary _lamarckiana_s. The numerical proportion of these two groups has been found different on different occasions. Some plants give about one-third _scintillans_ and two-thirds _lamarckiana_, while the progeny of individuals of another strain show exactly the reverse proportion. Two points deserve to be noticed. First the progeny of the _scintillans_ appears to be mutable in a large degree, exceeding even the _lamarckiana_. The same forms that are produced most often by the parent-family are also most ordinarily [545] met with among the offspring of the shiny evening-primrose. They are _oblonga_, _lata_ and _nanella_. _Oblonga_ was observed at times to constitute as much as 1% or more of the sowings of _scintillans_, while _lata_ and _nanella_ were commonly seen only in a few scattering individuals, although seldom lacking in experiments of a sufficient size.