ANTHOCYANINS AND GENETICS 149 



cannot at present be stated whether Dahlia and Althaea have a red 

 corresponding to rose dore. In many respects Phlox Drummondii 

 shows the same series as Antirrhinum, though violet is included in 

 addition. It is interesting to compare the series given by Primula 

 sinensis (Gregory, 557) and Dianthus barbatus with Antirrhinum. In 

 the two former there is a crimson similar in appearance to the crimson 

 of Antirrhinum, but it is not due to mixture with yellow, since a soluble 

 yellow variety is unknown in Primula and D. barbatus. But the 

 'Scarlet' of D. barbatus and the 'Orange King' of P. sinensis appear 

 to be truly comparable to the rose dore of Antirrhinum. 



The Marvel of Peru, Mirabilis Jalapa (Marryat, 533), produces a 

 varietv with soluble yellow pigment, and although this species must 

 obviously be included in the present series, yet it is, in a sense, funda- 

 mentally different from Antirrhinum. From our knowledge of the 

 colour-inheritance of Mirabilia, one is led to believe that the original 

 type was crimson, and this apparently contains a mixture of magenta 

 anthocyanin and soluble yellow pigment. Loss of anthocyanin gives 

 a yellow variety, and further loss of yellow pigment, a white variety. 

 Anthocyanin may also be present on a pale yellow ground and then we 

 have a magenta variety. Thus the series is an inversion, so to speak, 

 of Antirrhinum and runs: crimson, magenta, yellow and white. It is 

 further complicated by the existence of heterozygous forms, but these 

 will be considered later (see p. 170). 



Cheiranthus Cheiri (Wall-flower), on the other hand, is typical of 

 the plastid-yellow series. The original wild type has deep yellow 

 flowers tinged with brown, from which has arisen in cultivation the 

 ordinary brown variety (see p. 153). The brown colour is due to the 

 simultaneous presence of purple anthocyanin and deep yellow plastids. 

 Loss of anthocyanin from the brown gives a yellow variety, which, 

 strictly speaking, is the albino as regards anthocyanin. Some loss 

 from, or change in, the deep yellow plastids results in a lemon yellow 

 variety. When the purple anthocyanin is present with pale yellow 

 plastids, the latter are masked, and we get the purple variety now 

 commonly grown. During recent years further varieties have appeared, 

 some of which are practically cream in colour. The purple anthocyanin, 

 too, has produced a red variation comparable to the red group previously 

 mentioned. This red, on a background of lemon or pale yellow plastids, 

 gives us the varieties ' Eastern Queen ' and ' Ruby ' : on a background 

 of deep yellow plastids, the new 'Scarlet.' Thus the Cheiranthus 

 series runs: crimson (brown), purple, scarlet, ruby, yellow, lenlon 



