34 LUTHER BURBANK 



of stem, produced a very large foliage. In this 

 case also the development was made solely by 

 selection, the largest leafed individuals of a 

 fraternity being selected for preservation gen- 

 eration after generation. 



In the same way I produced a five-leafed 

 strain of clover from a sport that appeared 

 among plants of the usual three-leafed type of 

 white Dutch clover (Trifolium re pens). 



The four-leafed clover is of course well- 

 known as an occasional sport. A five-leafed 

 clover will appear in a lot of seedlings now and 

 again, and there will be found a few five-leafed 

 individuals among the plants grown from seed 

 of this sport. It would, however, require many 

 repetitions seemingly to fix a five-leafed race, 

 the tendency to reversion to the familiar three- 

 leafed type being of course very pronounced. 



Another anomaly consisted of a clover with 

 leaves beautifully colored variegated in black, 

 brown, crimson, scarlet, yellow, white, and green, 

 in different forms and figures, no two plants 

 being closely similar in the coloring of the leaves. 

 This plant was introduced as a new ornamental 

 variety, but as the original plant came from a 

 warmer climate it did not thrive in the Eastern 

 States and has probably been allowed to die 

 out altogether. I have another stock of this 



