122 LUTHER BURBANK 



stances in which blossoms of the same species may 

 be in one case red, in another pink, in a third yel- 

 low, and in a fourth white. We have seen also 

 some instances of the mingling of different colors 

 in the same flower, notably with some of the 

 dahlias. But our attention has been yet called to 

 no flower that mingles the colors in quite so anom- 

 alous a way as is characteristic with the four- 

 o'clocks. For these blossoms, apparently unable 

 to decide between different colors, have hit upon 

 a compromise of arranging the colors in definite 

 stripes, which give the tubular corollas a very 

 curious and characteristic appearance. 



In a lot of seedlings, supposedly of the same 

 variety, the stripes may come in various widths of 

 white, crimson, and yellow. Even when the seed 

 is saved from a single plant, there will be great 

 variation among the seedlings, in some the wide 

 white stripes predominating, in others the crim- 

 son, and in yet others the yellow. Again, some of 

 the flowers may come pure white, or yellow, or 

 crimson, or pink, quite without stripes; or per- 

 haps half of the blossoms on a given plant will be 

 one color and half another. 



It is obvious that a plant showing such wide 

 variation does not necessarily call for hybridiza- 

 tion to stimulate variation, that is in respect to 

 color. The mingling of hereditary strains is 



