ON SOME HYBRID POPPIES. 203 
ON SOME HYBRID POPPIES. 
By Monsieur Henry DE VILMORIN. 
THE series of hybrid Poppies, of which I purpose to give a short account, 
originated at Verriéres, near Paris, in the year 1890, in consequence 
of a cross repeatedly performed between Papaver bracteatum, L., seed- 
bearing parent, and a double garden variety of P. somiiferwm, L., which 
supplied the pollen, a striking feature in the case being that one of the 
parents is an annual and the other a perennial plant. 
The great discrepancy in the respective characteristics of both parents 
affords an easy means of recognising the fact of the blending of the 
species and of appreciating the relative share of influence of either 
parent in each individual hybrid plant. 
The first batch of seedlings raised from the original seed-pod showed 
a very remarkable uniformity of appearance. All the plants were annual, 
with a distinctly glaucous colour on leaves and stems, plainly inherited 
from P. somiuferwm. From the same parent they derived their branch- 
ing habit. From P. bracteatwm they received the strong hairs on their 
stems and leaves and the great size of their flowers, which were con- 
stantly single, and showed variation only in the fact of some of them 
having the edge of the petals fringed or laciniated, while in the greater _ 
number it was plain and smooth. The colour was a deep rich crimson, 
with a dark blotch on each petal, the influence of the common annual 
Poppy asserting itself again in the departure from the fiery scarlet of 
P. bracteatum. In height the hybrid plant surpassed both its parents. 
The plants in this first generation bore no seed. 
A fresh trial was made in 1892 with seeds kept over from the original 
capsule. They came up freely, and several beds were planted with the 
seedlings, which developed into plants quite similar to those raised the 
year before. A few plants showed some tendency to take a perennial 
habit. Some seed was saved this time, although in very small quantity, 
and from the annual plants only. 
This became still more marked in the next generation, when some 
plants visibly reverted to P. bracteatum, but were found entirely barren, 
while the annual plants, with the plain stamp of P. sommferwm upon 
them, commenced to set seed more freely. 
From the first some slight variations were observed in the colour and 
shape of the flowers, which, by selection, were brought to reproduce 
themselves in a fair proportion. Roughly speaking, one might divide them 
into three sections :— 
(1) Bright crimson, the original shade of colour, with large, 
strongly marked black blotches ; single. 
(2) Light, delicate pink, with the blotches much less distinet 
than in No. 1; single. 
(8) Double flowers, never very full, but showing a bunch of 
entangled narrow petals in the centre, not concealing the broad 
blotched outer petals. 
