LUTHER BURBANK 



breeding, even with a flower that tends very 

 strongly to maintain fixity of type. 



But, in point of fact, as we have emphasized 

 again and again, no flower is so fixed that it does 

 not vary to some extent; and in the case of the 

 balloon-flower, it appears that there are modifica- 

 tions in the type of the plant as it appears in China 

 and in Japan, that are sufficiently divergent to be 

 recognized by the botanist as established varieties. 

 A form from Manchuria also has been modified, 

 particularly in the matter of the time of blooming, 

 which is much later than that of the type species. 

 Also in the matter of color that most variable of 

 traits there is modification, as some varieties are 

 blue, some bluish white, and some variegated, in 

 addition to the pure white form. 



There was, however, no other color until last 

 season, when a plant bearing large red blossoms 

 appeared among a few thousand seedlings which 

 had been grown from my long-selected varieties. 



There is material at hand, then, through which 

 cross-fertilization may be practiced, with the pos- 

 sibility of giving the flower still greater impetus to 

 variation. Until such cross-pollenizing has been 

 practiced, using varieties of the plant imported 

 from the most widely spread regions let us say 

 races grown in China, in Manchuria, in Japan, in 

 Europe, and in California we shall not have 



[34] 



