340 



The Journal of Heredity 



PiUils ih Pklox 



astwlis 



(s«>»e kiU) 



liorrhal 



S.h^le corcll, lotes 



tkSt 



slts 



(t«>.t S«»!«) 



NORMAL AND ASTYLIS PISTILS AND 

 COROLLA LOBES 



Figure 2. Astylis plants are sterile be- 

 cause the ovary is undeveloped. Fortu- 

 nately, the pollen is viable, and crosses with 

 other kinds of phlox can be made. The self- 

 sterility of astylis makes it impossible to 

 raise pure astylis seed. 



Frontispiece.) The flower in this form 

 is normal, particularly as regards style 

 development, and is distinguished by 

 having the anthocyan pink color more 

 nearly confined to the periphery of the 

 corolla than in any other phlox. The 

 center of the flower is occupied by a 

 relatively large white eye. The genetic 



analysis of this large eye was under- 

 taken and both self pollinated seed and 

 crosses with other varieties were ob- 

 tained. 



The Origin of the Orbicularis Variety 



It was not expected at the time that 

 the paths of investigation of astylis 

 and of orbicularis would converge and 

 become one, but observation very soon 

 revealed among the progeny from self- 

 pollinated orbicularis more of the pecu- 

 liar astylis plants. These new astylis 

 individuals had as sibs large-eyed 

 plants, just like the orbicularis parent, 

 and also small-eyed ones, both kinds 

 bearing normal styles as far as ob- 

 served. Orbicularis, then, on inbreed- 

 ing, besides having reproduced itself, 

 produced astylis plants, and a small- 

 eyed kind as well. Furthermore, it was 

 found that when a plant whose flowers 

 have a small white eye with a wide 

 colored periphery was crossed with as- 

 tylis the progeny all have flowers with 

 large white eyes and narrow periphery; 

 /. c, tlie Fi hybrid generation of small- 

 eye and astylis is orbicularis. Two such 

 crosses have been made giving rise to a 

 total of nineteen progeny — uniformly 

 orbicularis. 



Five crossings of orbicularis plants 

 and small-eyed ones have been made. 

 There resulted 32 offspring of which 

 twenty had the large white eye and 

 twelve the small white eye. 



From the orbicularis plants, including 

 both the original commercial ones and 

 those experimentally produced, 14 fam- 

 ilies have been secured through self- 

 pollination. The total of progeny was 

 351. of which 84 were astylis, and 156 

 orbicularis, while 106 had small-eyed 

 flowers. Five non-astylis plants were 

 left unclassified because the eye was 

 intermediate in size. Astylis segregates 

 being sterile, could not be further tested 

 by selfing. Three of the small-eyed 

 segregates arising in the experiments 

 gave on selfing 56 progeny of which 55 

 were small-eyed and one (a stray 

 seed?) had a large eye. Small-eyed 

 phloxes not included in the present 



