BY THE SELECTION OF SOMATIC VARIATIONS. 



15 



during the summer of 1913. All of the leaves produced by the 6 

 branches in question in the 17 months of growth were uniform and 

 constant to the new type and were in marked contrast to the fohage 

 of the other branches. During the summer of 1913, two bud variations 

 occurred in secondary branches in the upper part of the plant. One 

 was a sectorial loss of yellow giving type green-red blotched from green- 

 yellow-red blotched and the other was a complete loss of green in one 

 branch giving type yellow-red blotched. In September 1913, the plant 

 bore four distinct kinds of color pattern, viz, 

 yellow-red blotched (fig. 1), green-yellow red 

 blotched (fig. 2), green-red blotched (fig. 5), and 

 yellow-green-red blotched (fig. 6). The bud 

 variation to type yellow-green-red blotched was 

 sectorial in the main stem for a vertical dis- 

 tance of six nodes, but was not complete for 

 the entire stem, a condition shown in diagram 1 . 



The greater number of bud variations first 

 appeared in single lateral branches and not in a 

 series of branches on a main stem, as described 

 above for 1171. Where such a variation was 

 sectorial in a branch the continued growth gave 

 more or less irregular extension of the new type. 



The parent plant here designated as No. 1 

 was one of several Coleus plants which were 

 grown at the New York Botanical Garden 

 during the sununer of 1911. This plant pos- 

 sessed in September 1911, when first observed 

 by the writer, two branches bearing leaves in 

 which the yellow was apparently almost 

 entirely absent. These two branches were in the same rank, one 

 directly above the other. x\bout one-third of the entire foliage of the 

 plant was borne by these two branches and the marked green aspect 

 of this part of the plant was in decided contrast to the conspicuous 

 yellow in the foliage of the rest of the plant. Upon careful examina- 

 tion, a few yellow spots could be seen in many of the leaves of one of 

 the green branches (branch 14) quite like those of the leaf shown in 

 figure 4. The leaves on the other green branch (branch 13) were 

 apparently free from all yellow areas (fig. 5). 



The decided loss of yellow in these two branches constituted the 

 only variation in the dozen or more plants in this particular bed of 

 Coleus. To test the constancy of this variation, as well as the reap- 

 pearance of it and of other variations, pedigreed cuttings were made 

 from each of four main lateral branches of the plant. 



About the same time random cuttings were made from the bed of 

 plants for stock for general planting. One of these cuttings produced 



Diagram 1. — Position of the 

 six branches on plant 

 1171 having color-pattern 

 ycllow-green-red blotched 

 (6) among those ha\ang 

 green-yellow-red blotched 

 patterns (2). 



