204 LUTHER BURBANK 



Even the specimens that have unusually 

 large, plump seed capsules may produce no 

 thoroughly well-developed seeds. In a gallon 

 of the seed pods, from which one might expect 

 perhaps two quarts of plump seed, I usually 

 obtain perhaps from one hundred to three 

 hundred or four hundred grains mostly of 

 shrunken ill-shaped seeds. Yet these shriveled 

 seeds w^hen sown produce good plants. Even 

 seeds that seem so abortive that it is incredible 

 they should germinate, may produce perfectly 

 healthy seedlings. 



Striking Variations in the Second 

 Generation 



The second-generation poppies produced from 

 these seeds were among the most remarkable 

 companies of plants that I have ever seen. 

 All who saw them agreed that they were the 

 most variable lot of plants of a single fraternity 

 that they had ever observed. 



The diversity was so great that it might be 

 said that there were no two plants among the 

 thousands that were even approximately identi- 

 cal. 'No two could be found in which differences 

 could not readily be observed in the foliage. 



Some of the peculiar forms of leaf were these: 

 (1) Long, smooth strap-shaped leaves some- 



