22 



The' Journal of Heredity 



united with a purple-fruited kind yields 

 solid purple fruits in the Fi and a small 

 percentage of striped fruits in the F2, 

 thus indicating the recessive nature of 

 the character of stripedncss. When 

 Long White is bred with Dwarf Purple 

 all the fruits in the Fi are purple, but 

 in the F2 four types are secured, namely: 

 (1) purple, (2) pink, (3) green, and (4) 

 white with the ratios of 9 : vS : 3 : 1. 

 This cross presents a full expression of 

 all four factors that resided in the 

 parents and by isolation, new types, so 

 far as this cross is concerned, may be 

 established; but historically they are 

 probably as old as those from which they 

 sprang in this particular cross. 



While red as a final color does not 

 appear in the American eggplants it is 

 common to the genus, as, for example, 

 the Chinese group that breeds with our 

 garden kinds and yields hybrids that 

 are beset with puzzling color combi- 

 nations. 



PEPPERS 



Another genus (Capsicum) of the 

 Solanaceae contain the peppers of the 

 vegetable garden. Their fruits are of 

 the same botanical type (berry) as the 

 tomato and eggplant, but usually differ 

 from them in certain structural peculi- 

 arities. However, it might be written 

 in passing that the kinship is shown 

 by those members which have fruits so 

 nearly alike in size, shape and color as 

 to be easily mistaken for each other. 

 Thus the tomato pepper closely re- 

 sembles the dwarf Champion type of 

 tomatoes and from them the fruits of 

 the Chinese eggplant are not easily 

 distinguished at a distance. 



The leading colors of peppers are the 

 red and orange, the red being much more 

 common in the market. In breeding, 

 the orange is clearly a recessive to 

 the red. 



The skin is transparent and docs 

 not dcvcloj) the combinations noted in 

 tomato and eggplant. There arc, how- 

 ever, other color difTcrcnces that need a 

 word of consideration, and this relates 

 to the color of the fruit before it reaches 

 the red or orange of the fully matured 

 state. 



On account of peppers being sold in 

 large part before they are mature, these 

 transitory colors deserve more than a 

 passing word. For example, there are 

 certain leading commercial sorts that are 

 of a light green color while others are 

 dark green. This is due to a lack of 

 much of the chlorophyll that abounds 

 in the wall of the fruit. This character 

 of light green is a recessive to the dark 

 green, as has been shown by breeding 

 together the two types. When mature, 

 these two classes of fruits are not dis- 

 tinguishable by their color. 



Again, the color path that the fruit 

 takes in going from the green to the 

 fully mature condition varies. Ordi- 

 narily the way is strictly from the green 

 to the red (or orange) by all graduations 

 from green to red (or orange), but there 

 are some kinds that pass first to the 

 orange through an attractive lemon 

 (quite pale at first), and then on to the 

 red. In this last phase the fniits often 

 exhibit, at the same time, a wide range 

 of colors from the original green that 

 may be retained in some parts, due to 

 the lack of exposure to the direct sun- 

 light, to the red and orange mingled 

 with the red. This fleeting maturation 

 color display proves to be a breeding 

 character that is recessive to the ordi- 

 nary simple line of changes. 



WIDESPREAD C0L0R.\TIOX 



Lastly, the whole pepper plant may 

 be more or less endowed with the power 

 to develop a purplish color. This mani- 

 fests itself most frequently in the nodes, 

 but may be so abundant as to mark the 

 green in the whole stem and appear in 

 the petals and the fruit. 



This pur]3le color is subject to much 

 fluctuation within the variety, but cer- 

 tain sorts exhibit it generally and often 

 so strongly that the fruit, for example, 

 when green, is so dark that it appears 

 almost black. The breeding values of 

 the purple color are not fully under- 

 stood. It seems at least to emphasize 

 the relationshi]) to the eggplants where, 

 as previously noted, a similar color 

 abounds and becomes a foundation 

 factor in the grouping of the varieties. 

 In the tomatoes a similar purple, al- 

 though usually less pronounced, is found 



