84 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



borne. Accordingly seed was selected from two types, one 

 with ears near the ground and one with high ears. Each suc- 

 ceeding year seed was selected from the plant showing the 

 greatest variation and now the following difference may be 

 noted : In the high-ear plot, the average height of the plants 

 is 114 inches, that of the low-ear plot 79 inches; in the high- 

 ear plot, the average height of the ears from the ground is 

 60 inches, that in the low-ear plot 27 inches ; in the high-ear 

 plot the number of internodes below the ear averages eight, in 

 the low ear the average is four. All this has been accomplished 

 without crossing by simply selecting the most characteristic 

 plants from which to breed. No doubt any other plant would 

 show similar variation under similar methods of treatment. 



Improving the Wildflowers. — The statement that no 

 two blades of grass are just alike has been reiterated so fre- 

 quently as to be commonplace, and we apparently often fail 

 to grasp the significance of this diversity to the cultivator of 

 plants. Since plants do differ, not only in their leaves but in 

 their flowers, fruits and other parts, we can frequently make 

 choice of the good or the bad in the same species and by care- 

 ful selection soon have much finer plants than the common run 

 afield. No matter what wild plant you admire most, it is 

 probably within your power to have better specimens of it 

 than you have ever had before. Take the hepatica, for in- 

 stance; if one chooses, he may have clumps in which the 

 flowers are of the deepest shades of blue others pure white, 

 others deep pink or still others of paler shades of blue and 

 pink. He may have three-lobed or five-lobed plants, with the 

 lobes sharp or blunt and all this by selection. The finest plant 

 of any species probably does not grow in the nearest field but 

 by searching long enough in many fields one may find it. It 

 is very certain that we do not value our native plants as highly 

 as their beauty warrants. In England a multitude of our com- 



