FLOWER POSSIBILITIES 201 



This single plant was allowed to mature its 

 seed. 



The plants that grew from this seed, repre- 

 senting now the second filial generation from the 

 original wild plant, were treated in precisely the 

 same way. But it should be recorded that there 

 was great improvement in this second generation. 

 Now three-quarters of the plants showed leaves 

 that were markedly crinkled. Each plant 

 produces thousands of seeds, and progress was 

 relatively rapid, as great numbers could be 

 produced from which to select. 



By process of elimination, the one best plant 

 was again selected and its seed preserved. 



In the next generation practically all of the 

 plants produced the curiously modified form of 

 leaf. 



In the fourth generation, as before, very large 

 numbers of plants were raised that there might 

 be wide opportunity for selection. Now all the 

 plants presented the crinkled leaves, but there 

 were of course individual specimens that ex- 

 celled, and these were chosen to the exclusion of 

 the others. 



Their progeny bore uniformly crinkled leaves 

 of the most pronounced type, and they constitute 

 the new species Heuchera cristata as it grows 

 to-day. 



