H. Martin Leake and B. Ram Pershad 13 



The white-flowered group. 



It would appear from the above results that the white form, in spite 

 of its apparent uniformity in petal colour, is in reality a diverse group 

 in which at least two independent factors of the nature of intensifiers 

 may exist. The evidence which we have given in the above tables 

 proves that the R and L factors are not one and the same. The 

 presence of the factor R in some and not in other whites has already 

 been given, and the same argument applied to the crosses tabulated 

 above (p. 12) may be used to prove the presence of the L factor in 

 certain white (as well as pink and RP) parents. 



Of greater interest, however, are those cases in which an extracted 

 white has been obtained from the cross between two pure coloured 

 parents. It would seem to indicate the presence in the poppy of two 

 anthocyanin bases as capable of coexistence as of independent existence, 

 and each capable of developing independently a colouring matter. The 

 phenomenon is in marked contrast to the more commonly known 

 instances in which the purple, or blue, colour is derived from a pink or 

 red and is, consequently, not capable of independent development. 



The L factor. 



We have, throughout the above discussion, assumed that the L 

 factor is of the nature of an intensifier, and all the results so far detailed 

 are concordant with that supposition. The matter cannot be so readily 

 dismissed, however. In the crosses (p. 10) the RB form was synthesised 

 by crossing the purple, MP, form by the pink, P, and by the RP, forms. 

 It follows from this synthesis that, if the L factor is an intensifier, these 

 P and RP parents cannot carry that factor. These parents should, 

 therefore, when crossed with a purple of the form MMLL, give an F^ 

 having the constitution PpMmLI, yielding among others RB and PPG 

 forms in the F^. Actually this is not so, for the same parents occur 

 among the families recorded on p. 10, in which the dilute group does 

 not occur. Again, an MP parent which, when crossed with a P, has 

 given no Group IV colours in the F^, has, when crossed with an R form, 

 failed to give any Group III colours. The former result indicates that 

 the MP plant has the constitution MM 11, the latter that the constitu- 

 tion is MMLL. 



The first of these two cases, if considered independently, would 

 support the conclusion that the M and L factors are independent, and 



