Shamel: Bud Variation of Dahlia 



367 



The comparative inefficiency of gov- 

 ernment in democratic countries is due 

 in a large measure to the circumstance 

 that a single method, that of the ballot- 

 box, is employed to achieve two wholly 

 different aims — the ascertainment of the 

 popular will, and its execution. 



So long as the task of government 

 was little more than to build the post- 

 roads, impound stray cattle, punish a 

 few criminals and misdemeanants, and 

 collect a few taxes, it was easy to dis- 

 cern the popular will ; and to execute it 

 required little more than common sense. 



Today, however, there is practically 

 nothing which is not the concern of 

 government ; and in relation to the vast 

 majority of administrative problems the 

 public is not only absolutely incompe- 

 tent to form an opinion, but is almost 

 equally incompetent to select someone 

 who is competent to form one. As- 

 suming, however, that there is an in- 



formed majority opinion in regard to 

 any question of domestic policy ; and 

 assuming further — what is a very wild 

 assumption — that this opinion upon this 

 question is reflected at the polls ; we still 

 have to face the fact that the carrying 

 out of the public will today is for the 

 most part a matter of extremely tech- 

 nical knowledge, a matter of chemistry, 

 of engineering, of bacteriology, of elec- 

 tricity, of preventive medicine, and of 

 other highly specialized sciences. 



It is this shift in the center of grav- 

 ity of government which has escaped 

 the notice of those who approach the 

 question of politics as though patriot- 

 ism and democracy were still chiefly 

 concerned in emancipating the people 

 from the tyranny of a king, and who 

 seem to believe that the people will al- 

 ways be content to accept an impotent 

 political freedom as a substitute for effi- 

 cient administration. 



A BUD VARIATION OF THE 



LE GRANDE MANITOU DAHLIA 



A. D. Shamel 



IN THE Journal of Heredity for 

 December, 1918, the writer de- 

 scribed a striking bud variation in 

 a dahlia plant found in a garden at 

 Riverside, Cal. Since that time he has 

 been on the lookout for similar in- 

 stances of dahlia bud sports. In Sep- 

 tember the dahlias of southern Cali- 

 fornia are in full bloom. While visiting 

 a citrus ranch at Alta Loma on Septem- 

 ber 9, 1919, my attention was called by 

 the manager, Mr. W. M. Mertz, to a 

 very interesting case of bud variation 

 in the well-known dahlia variety Le 

 Grande Manitou. The two plants of 

 this variety are growing in the door- 

 yard of the manager's house and are in 

 fine physical condition. The typical 

 flowers have a white ground and are 

 striped and speckled with violet. The 



flower on the left in Fig. 10 is a repre- 

 sentative bloom of the Le Grande 

 Manitou from these plants. 



The two Le Grande Manitou plants 

 both produce, in addition to the typical 

 flowers, blooms having solid violet 

 color as shown in the flower on the 

 right in Fig. 10. At the time of our 

 examination of these plants one violet 

 bloom was found on each plant to about 

 twelve of the typical flowers of the 

 variety. Mr. Mertz told the writer that 

 up to this time each plant had pro- 

 duced several violet blooms. 



As can be seen in the illustration, the 

 two flowers, borne by the same plant, 

 vary in other characteristics than that 

 of color. The number, shape, arrange- 

 ment and size ot petals are decidedly 

 different in the two blooms. 



