LUTHER BURBANK 



Eschscholtzia, commonly known as the California 

 poppy. 



The blossoms of the plant from which my 

 new type of poppy was developed, had a narrow 

 strip of crimson on the inner side of one petal. 



This was an anomaly that appeared "spon- 

 taneously." Doubtless it was due to some crossing 

 of ancestral strains that brought out a latent 

 character that had long been suppressed. But as 

 to this we can only surmise. The simple fact 

 of the matter was that a blossom did appear that 

 had this narrow strip of crimson on one petal. 

 I seized on this individual blossom as offering 

 material for an experiment in color variation. 



Seeds from this plant produced the next year 

 several plants that had a trifle more crimson on 

 their blossoms. 



The following year there was still further 

 improvement, as plants appeared that showed 

 a much larger invasion of the flower petals 

 by the crimson coloring. And by selecting year 

 after year blossoms that showed this increasing 

 tendency to adopt the new color, I produced 

 presently a plant that bore blossoms of a beautiful 

 uniform clear crimson. No trace of the original 

 color remained. 



This furnishes a very good illustration of 

 selection for color where the material consisted 



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