304 LUTHER BURBANK 



which the hybrid offspring were all crimson in 

 color. The hybridizing in this case may be sup- 

 posed to have brought together latent or masked 

 factors for red (present in the white flower), the 

 mating of which gave that color dominance, and 

 enabled it to assert itself, while the yellow factors 

 were unable to assert themselves, yellow being 

 hypostatic to red. 



Suppose, for example, that the yellow poppy 

 bore factors for yellow and blue; and the white 

 one factors for red and yellow. The combina- 

 tion would bring together red, plus yellow, plus 

 blue; and red would be manifest, the other colors 

 being masked. Recombinations should be ex- 

 pected in the next generation. 



But the actual conditions are probably a little* 

 more complex even than here suggested. The 

 smoky character of the blue poppies, especially 

 in their earlier forms, seemed to suggest the pres- 

 ence of a factor for blackness. And, indeed, the 

 fact that black pigment constantly tends to 

 appear in the poppies shows how potent an influ- 

 ence this is. So, when the entire hereditary color 

 scheme of the poppies is untangled, it will prob- 

 ably be found that there are dominant factors 

 for red and yellow and black and blue corre- 

 sponding more or less to the yellow and gray 

 and black and chocolate pigments of the coat of 



