December, 1921. 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



129 



however, Kajanus (4. p. 129-180) finds it 

 rather doubtful whether polyphylly 

 should be regarded as an atavistic pheno- 

 menon. It t'ertainly (.-annot be so regard- 

 ed if the polypliylly really is a form of 

 faseiation caused by an increase in the 

 number of the fibro-vascular bundles, be- 

 cause in such a case the increase in the 

 number of the fibro-vascular bundles may 

 be due to a more vigorous growth brought 

 about by a more plentiful food supply. 

 The apparent inheritance of the polyphyl- 

 lous tendency may then be looked upon 

 as a kind of pseudo-heredity. Such an 

 explanation seems to agree fairly well 

 with the observations made by de Vt'ies 

 (2) which are to the effect that the poly- 

 phylly manifests itself more vigorousl}^ 

 in the progeny of well nourished seed^, 

 and also with observations made by 

 Kajanus himself. Kajanus (4. p. 122) had, 

 in 1911, several individual plants grow- 

 ing, which were characterized by fasciat- 

 ed stems, split pedicels, and polyphyllous 

 leaves. These plants, when transplanted 

 and thereby weakened, the following year, 

 exhibited the said characters" either very 

 indistinctly or not at all. 



Finally may be mentioned that Pcrriraz 

 (1) (according to Exp. Sta. Rec. vol. 

 35. 1916, p. 329) "concludes a discussion 

 of his observations by stating that the ap- 

 pearance of supplementary leaflets in the 

 different species of clover is due to here- 

 dity or to nutritive factors. These may 

 be distinguished, as the latter appear on 

 the same plan as the normal grow^th, while 

 the former appear on a different plan." 



The Colour of the Flowers. 



Variations in the Colour: — Concerning 

 the colour of the red clover flowers it is 

 a well-known fact that all kinds of shades 

 occur between deep-purplish red and pale 

 red. Sometimes a certain shade of 

 flower colour is characteristic to certain 

 varieties, particularly to varieties referr- 

 ed to as geographical ones on a preceding 

 page. Thus, certain local varieties have 

 deep-red flowers, others bright-red, and 

 still others pale-red ones. In ordinary 

 commercial red clover, however, all kinds 

 of shades of red may be readily distin- 

 guished. 



It is also a well-known fact that white 

 flowers are occasionallv found. In in- 



stances, the appearance of the white col- 

 our is sufficiently constant to have caused 

 certain types to be classified as distinct 

 botanical varieties, as for instance the 

 Alpine clover of central Europe (T. pra- 

 tense L. var. alpinum Hoppe) which has 

 dull white or ochroleucous flowers with 

 sometimes a tendency to become reddish. 

 Ordinarily, however, the w^hite flowered 

 ])lants occur more sporadically and irregu- 

 lai-ly among red-floAvered ones. 



Red flowers with a bluish tinge have 

 often been observed. Indeed, there are 

 local varieties in Europe characterized 

 by distinctly bluish-red flowers. Very 

 rare, however, are purely blue ones. Such 

 flowers were observed, or at least record- 

 ed, probably for the first time, by Ka- 

 janus (3. p. 764) in a progeny of so-called 

 Toten clover from Norway. They oc- 

 curred in several shades, viz. : purplish 

 blue, bright blue, and pale blue. 



Dominance of the Red Colour:— The 

 inheritance of the red flower colour has 

 been particularly studied in its relation 

 to white. De Vries (3. pp. 154-155) fer- 

 tilized, in 1895, a white-flowered plant of 

 American Red clover Avith pollen of or- 

 dinary typical Red clover and found that 

 all the plants of the F^ generation pos- 

 sessed red flowers. From the F^ genera- 

 tion, the seed of which was harvested col- 

 lectively, 219 plants were obtained, 25 

 per cent of which were white-flowered 

 and 75 per cent red flowered. Another 

 cross obtained another year between a 

 white-flowered form of European Red 

 clover and the ordinarj^ Red clover gave 

 also an exclusively red-flowered F^ 

 generation, showing that, in this case 

 also, red was dominant over white. 



Observations by Kajanus (3. pp. 765-66) 

 also most decidedly indicate that the red 

 colour is dominant. Thus, the progeny 

 of a white-floM^ered plant growing among 

 ordinary red-coloured ones proved to con- 

 sist of 246 red-flowered individuals and 

 only 2 white-flowered ones. Another 

 plant of a pale-red colour produced a 

 progeny varying in colour from deep- 

 purplish red to white, the latter colour 

 however appearing in very few specimens. 

 In both cases the dominance of the red 

 colour was apparent. 



In inter-crossing pairs composed of one 



