PRODUCING A NEW COLOR 283 



of my poppy colony that made possible the final 

 development of the flower with the anomalous 

 color. 



Therefore, it will be necessary, as preliminary 

 to a specific account of the quest of the blue 

 poppy itself, to give somewhat in detail the 

 story of the development of the ancestral strains 

 of poppies of varied but more usual colors. 



ORIGIN OF THE SHIRLEY POPPY 



The poppy from which the blue flower was 

 developed is known as the Shirley poppy. 



This is one of the most interesting and beau- 

 tiful varieties of the species Papaver rhceas, the 

 corn poppy of Europe. 



The peculiarity of the Shirley in which it dif- 

 fers from the wild form of field poppy is that it 

 varies in color from the original red to a pale 

 pink and even to a pure white ; and that the origi- 

 nal black central portion of the flower has been 

 changed to yellow or white. The last-named 

 characters are the distinctive ones. The true 

 Shirleys never have the smallest particle of 

 black about them. They may be scarlet or pink 

 or white or variously flecked. But they have no 

 black about them, and they were never yellow, 

 until pale yellow and pale orange shades have 

 recently arisen. 



