Howard, howard and abdur rahMan. 323 



Enough has been said to show that it is impossible to grow a 

 collection of Indian poppies side by side for experimental pur- 

 poses and to allow them to flower freely. In a single season the 

 various cultures would be contaminated to such an extent by vicin- 

 ism that further work would lead to no result. A collection of 

 poppy seeds from the various districts of India was sown at Piisa in 

 1908 and 1909 showed that except in the case of seed from the United 

 Provinces each set of seed gave rise to mixed plots and it appear- 

 ed probable that crossing goes on to a great extent in the cultiv- 

 ators' fields themselves and that the present opium crop is often 

 largely composed of hybrids. 



8. Safflowek. 



Satflower {Carthamus tinctorius, L.) is widely cultivated in 

 India both for the dye in its flowers and for the oil in the seeds. 

 Even a casual examination of the crop as grown by the cultivators 

 shows that a very large number of forms are to be seen in the same 

 field. 



Some setting is obtained under bag. Out of 800 heads bagged 

 in 1909 only 181 produced seeds and the number of seeds in each 

 case was far below that obtained in free-flowering heads. 



In 1910 the amount of setting obtained under bag was care- 

 fully determined in the case of eight plants. The results are 

 given in the following table : — 



No, of heads 



wliich formed 



seed. 



No. of seeds No. of seeds in 

 formed. unbagged heads. 



3 3i 'dM 



.S (IS 4811 



11 131 402 



() :a 40i 



5 y 8 Kill 323 



B 11 8 it'J 697 



7 10 (» ">3 516 



8 10 7 13!l 488 



'lotal S.-, .-.7 740 •A,{Wi 



It will be seen that only 67 per cent, of the heads formed seed, 



while the total amount of seed was only 20 per cent, of what would 

 have set if the heads had not been bagged. 



