IN THE FLOWER GARDEN 



there were no two plants among the thousands 

 that were even approximately identical." 



The foliage in particular was amazingly varied. 

 There were long, smooth, strap-shaped leaves, and 

 short stubby ones; smooth, glossy leaves, and 

 rough, hairy ones; leaves like those of one or 

 the other of the parent forms; and nondescript 

 leaves that variously suggested the primrose, 

 cherry, dock, wormwood, dandelion, and scores of 

 others. 



The blossoms were not only diversified in color, 

 and some of them enormously increased in size, 

 but they showed a curious modification, in that 

 they were produced at all seasons instead of only 

 for a short period, as is the habit with the parent 

 species. 



The first-generation hybrids themselves were 

 perennial plants (although their mother plant was 

 an annual), and they bloomed persistently. 

 " There is not a day in the year when some of 

 these hybrids are not in bloom at Sebastopol, 

 spring, summer, autumn, or winter blossoms can 

 always be gathered in quantity from them. ' ' 



It is of peculiar interest to note that the second- 

 generation hybrids were in part annuals, like one 

 of their grandparents, and in part perennials, like 

 the other grandparent. The annual and perennial 

 habit appear to be a pair of Mendelian unit char- 

 acters of which the perennial habit was "dom- 

 inant" and the annual habit "recessive"; there 

 being a characteristic segregation in the second 

 generation. 



[147] 



