378 



A. B. STOUT 



from the root upward, but most usually the two are more or less fused 

 for a distance, the fusion finally becoming complete near the top of the 

 plant. None of the plants of this variety have shown any tendency 

 to live over winter. The maturity and death of the stems and branches 

 is accompanied by death of the roots. Several attempts to obtain 

 new plants from root cuttings taken at the time of the maturity of 

 plants have failed. 



The wild white-flowered plant used in crosses with plants of the 

 red-leaved Treviso is perennial as are wild plants of chicory in general. 

 In the five years it has been under observation its mature height has 

 ranged from 23^ to 21^ feet. Its rosette leaves are few, much smaller 

 in size than those of the red-leaved Treviso, and are flat in habit of 

 growth. The branches are few and strongly horizontal, giving the 

 plant a sparsely branched and scraggly appearance. 



The Fi generation plants of the crosses between plants of the red- 

 leaved Treviso variety and the wild plant just mentioned were more 

 like the red-leaved Treviso in habit of growth. They were all blue- 

 flowered. Their height ranged from 4 to 6 feet, and they were abun- 

 dantly and profusely branched from the base. The degree of the 

 duplication of the main stem was much less than in the family of the 

 red-leaved Treviso. As shown in text figure 2 , the plants of this hybrid 

 generation were large and well developed and of 'marked vegetative 

 vigor. They were far more robust and vigorous in growth than the 

 wild parent, and in respect to the degree of branching they were more 

 developed than plants of the red-leaved Treviso strain. 



The sex vigor of these plants and of plants of the Treviso variety 

 in respect to production of flowers was commensurate with the vege- 

 tative vigor. From statistical data obtained in studies of flower 

 number, it was found that the total number of flower heads produced 

 by individual plants ranged roughly from 2,000 to 3,500 with the 

 average number of flowers per head at about 17. At the climax of 

 development as many as 100 to 150 flower heads opened in a single day. 

 These statements together with the descriptions given and the illus- 

 trations in the accompanying text-figures give some conception of the 

 full and complete sex vigor seen in the profuse production of flowers 

 that set seed when pollinated with pollen that was compatible. 



It will also readily be observed that the inbreeding within the family 

 of red-leaved Treviso involved crosses between plants of close blood 

 relationship and of decided similarity, and that the fertilization in 



