14 ESTABLISHMENT OF VARIETIES IN COLEUS 



epidermis as red blotched (both surfaces), solid red (both surfaces), or 

 solid red upper center. In these compound expressions, hyphens will 

 be used to separate the terms descriptive of each color element. In 

 the cases with colorless epidermis no reference is made to this condi- 

 tion. The colors were determined by Ridgway's Color Standards and 

 Color Nomenclature. The color pattern of the parent plants, in this 

 paper referred to as a green-yellow-red blotched pattern, is a mosaic 

 made up of a green center and a yellow border with conspicuous 

 epidermal blotches of red. The yellow is amber yellow and constitutes 

 an irregular band about the margin of the leaf. The green is a spinach 

 green and is chiefly massed in the center of the leaf. Over the green 

 portions the red appears as violet carmine, but over the underlying yellow 

 areas it is nopal red. The three color elements are in such sharp con- 

 trast that any marked variation is readily noted. Increase or loss of 

 either the yellow, green, or red is conspicuous, as one will appreciate 

 from a glance at the plates that illustrate this article. 



Spontaneous bud variations consisting of marked alterations in color 

 pattern appear either in single leaves or groups of leaves, or in single 

 branches or groups of branches, affecting the whole or a part of the 

 leaves or branches. When appearing in a terminal bud, one or more 

 leaves have a pattern differing from that of the leaves below. When 

 appearing in a lateral bud, the first leaves of the branch possess a 

 pattern different from that of the subtending leaf. Those appearing 

 in a terminal bud have, in all cases observed by the writer, been sec- 

 torial in the main branch itself. That is, the change has appeared first 

 in a part of the branch only. These variations carried on into newly 

 formed branches give plants bearing two, three, or even four distinct 

 types of foliage, with differences especially marked in cases of single 

 branches with sectorial distribution of two patterns. The rather 

 simple arrangement of the leaves and branches in Coleus enables one to 

 trace the extent of a variation. 



This may be illustrated by a variation that occurred in plant No. 

 1171. In this variation the relative positions of the green and the 

 yellow became reversed, as shown in the two leaves reproduced in 

 figures 2 and 6. When the cutting was made in April 1912, all the 

 leaves had uniformly green centers. On one of the first pair of branches 

 to develop, however, all of the leaves had the yellow in the center. As 

 further branches developed, the new pattern appeared in 5 other 

 branches. The plant produced 13 pairs of branches on the main branch 

 before it was necessary to remove the terminal bud to insure proper 

 development of the lateral branches. All of these branches developed at 

 least to a size sufficient to show the color pattern of the leaves borne. 

 The 6 branches with the new pattern were contiguous and were located 

 as indicated in diagram 1 . The plant was transplanted to a large pot 

 and kept in a greenhouse over winter and then grown out of doors 



