252 LUTHER BURBANK 



flowers of unusually rounded outline, not unlike 

 the form of a dahlia. 



Several of the best of these were introduced 

 through dealers. The clematis is somewhat sub- 

 ject to a disease usually ascribed to the same 

 cause that destroys lilies and many other plants 

 in cultivated soil. It is probably bacterial, and 

 is associated with thrips, millipeds, and eel- 

 worms, which probably serve to disseminate the 

 germs. 



Subsequently I began a series of hybridizing 

 experiments, using the Clematis cocdnea as the 

 original seed parent. 



This species is herbaceous and has scarlet flask- 

 shaped flowers, with the sepals slightly opened 

 by the curling outward of their tips. The sepals 

 are thick and fleshy, although not leathery, giv- 

 ing the flower almost the appearance of a fruit. 



This species is not variable, about the only 

 diversity noticeable being a slight variation in 

 the size of the flowers. It produces seed freely, 

 and to the pistils of cocdnea was applied the 

 pollen of various other species; among these 

 being C. crispa, known as "Blue Bells," 

 C. Davidiana, C. Fremonti, C. ligustidfolia, 

 C. Douglasi, C. verticillaris, C. ocddentalis, 

 C. Fortunei, C. Viticella, and others, no attempt 

 being made to keep the various crosses separate. 



