EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT 339 



Selection Experiment with "Jackson Wonder" Lima Beans. 



The "Jackson Wonder" variety exhibits much variation in the 

 amount of color in the seeds and a selection experiment has been 

 running for four years to fix a light and a dark strain. Thits, 

 each season a set of seeds showing the least amount of red or 

 purple blotching was planted under isolation and, likewise, a com- 

 parable plot with seeds of the'oppoite extreme, that is, those 

 having the greatest amount of the color. Last year, the con- 

 clusion was that the "selection has removed much of the white 

 in the series of dark seeds, while the opposite is not so evident, 

 namely, the seeds after three years of selection for whiteness are 

 nearly as much colored as the regular stock of the variety." From 

 the results of the present season there appears to be no decrease 

 in the amount of color in the light lot while, contrariwise, the 

 crop grown from the selected dark seeds averages much darker 

 than last year. This lot, however, contains a great variety of 

 seeds ranging all the w-ay from white (in one plant) to those 

 of a solid dark purple. A comparison of seeds of different years, 

 furthermore, shows that the color of "Jackson Wonder" beans 

 changes materiaHy with- age, the gray white of the blotched 

 typical seeds becoming light brown. 



General Observations Upon Lima Beans. 



That natural crossing among the Limas is easily accomplished 

 through the aid of insects seems apparent from the results gained 

 in the "Jackson Wonder" experiments, where one variety, being 

 dark-seeded, readily marks itself upon a white-seeded sort and 

 the blend is readily distinguished by its usually solid dark red 

 seeds or by those that are slightly mottled. 



That the running tendency lies dormant in the bush varieties 

 seems apparent in the resulting crosses ; thus, the "Jackson 

 Wonder-Dreer" blend has shown a strong tendency in that direc- 

 tion, and it was this character which led to the selection of "Jack- 

 son Wonder-Wood's Prolific" "Runner set." Seed from cer- 



