96 THE SCHOOL GARDEN BOOK 



rounding the broad pistil in the middle. It is an interesting 

 fact that all of the Shirley Poppies have descended from a 

 single plant found by a clergyman, Rev. W. Wilks, in his 

 garden in Shirley, England. The story of their origin has 

 been told by Mr. Wilks in these words: 



"In 1880, I noticed in a west corner of my garden, abut- 

 ting on the fields, a plant of the common wild field poppy, 

 one solitary flower of which had a very narrow edge of white. 

 This one flower I marked and saved the seed of it alone. 

 Next year, out of two hundred plants, I had four or five on 

 which all the flowers were edged. The best of these were 

 marked and the seed saved, and so on for several years; the 

 flowers all the while getting a larger infusion of white to 

 tone down the red until they arrived at pale pink, and one 

 plant absolutely white. I then set myself to change the 

 black centre portions of the flowers from black to yellow or 

 white, and have succeeded at last in fixing a strain with 

 petals varying in tint from brightest scarlet to pure white, 

 with all shades of pink between and all varieties of flakes and 

 edged flowers also, but all having yellow or white stamens, 

 anthers and pollen arid a white base." 



It is also true that a large proportion of the new varieties 

 of plants are obtained by crossing or hybridizing, that is, by 

 transferring the pollen from the stamen of one kind of flower 

 to the stigma of another kind. In these cases, however, this 

 process of hybridizing is designed to induce variation toward 

 some desired type and is simply preliminary to a great deal 

 of selection requisite to attain and then establish the new 

 type. Only a very small proportion of the plants that are 

 produced by such hybridizing prove worthy of culti- 

 vation. And the man who practices the art must throw 



