296 LUTHER BURBANK 



petal, the rest of the back of the flower being 

 crimson. 



It may be interesting to recall in this connec- 

 tion a series of experiments in which the only 

 true California poppy (Papaver calif ornica), a 

 rare and little known plant, was modified by 

 selection, working with a five-petaled sport, until 

 a variety was produced that uniformly had six 

 petals. The size of the flower was also greatly 

 improved by selection; but the color of the orig- 

 inal a pale orange has so far refused to budge. 



Yet another poppy modification of interest 

 was that through which the Iceland poppy was 

 developed until its seed capsules had fifty-six 

 proliferations instead of the original one. 



THE VARYING DOMINANCE or COLORS 



The story of the color variation in poppies, as 

 illustrated in the development of the Shirley and 

 its modifications, and in the selective and hybrid- 

 izing experiments just related, furnishes fairly 

 tangible evidence that the scheme of pigmenta- 

 tion of a flower is of somewhat less fixed or 

 fundamental character than the various charac- 

 teristics of form and leaf system and breadth and 

 arrangement of petals and stamens and ovules, 

 that are depended upon by the botanist in deter- 

 mining plant relationships. 



