B Flower Colour and Characters of the Opium Poppy 



entirely eliminated, though care in sowing to bring the seed into 

 intimate contact with the soil and the elimination of the second crop 

 after germination will do much, but neither of these methods is entirely 

 practicable in cultures which extend over many acres. The point is 

 well illustrated in the above table which, in the case of the 63 families, 

 shows a very definite deficiency in the number of whites, and a corre- 

 sponding excess in the number of pinks. The absence of that dis- 

 crepancy in the case of the crosses is also explainable. These crosses 

 were grown on light soil, the friable nature of which permitted an 

 intimate contaot between the seed and the soil particles and in it, also, 

 the movement of soil moisture is well maintained. This latter factor 

 prevents the too rapid drying out of the surface soil in which the seed 

 lies, and the moisture available for germination thus persists for a 

 longer period in such soils than in the heavier soils on which the 

 63 families were grown. The F^. crop was, thus, almost completely free 

 from the intermixture of a second crop, and for this reason the deficiency 

 in the number of whites is not apparent. 



The M factor. 



It has been stated above that the purple flowered plants which are 

 denoted by MP owe their colour to a single factor M, but that this colour 

 is merely the end term of a series of which the other extreme is the PL 

 form. This latter colour is only developed when an additional factor, L, of 

 the nature of an intensifier, is also present. Without collateral evidence 

 as to the true constitution of the purple flowered plant it is not possible, 

 therefore, to say with certainty in all cases whether the factor L is 

 present or not. 



The number of purple flowered plants which have been shown to 

 give only purple flowered offspring amounts to several hundreds, and 

 there is no question, therefore, that the purples can exist in a condition 

 of purity. The behaviour of the impure purples is given below. 



Collateral evidence proves absence of L 



Collateral evidence proves presence of L in con- 

 dition Li 



Collateral evidence proves presence of L in con- 

 dition LI 



Collateral evidence wanting 



