ON SOME COMMON FAVORITES 



that they will come reasonably true to type. If 

 you succeed in accomplishing this, in the course of 

 a few seasons, you will have performed an experi- 

 ment that you will find full of interest, and your 

 task will not have been carried out without giving 

 you very suggestive sidelights on the problem of 

 heredity. 



It is, in any event, a very curious anomaly that 

 a plant should so have assorted its hereditary fac- 

 tors that they adopt this compromise. And your 

 investigation, which endeavors to determine how 

 accurately the tendency to striping is dependent 

 on particular combinations of hereditary factors, 

 will not only prove interesting, but may lead to* 

 valuable revelations. The entire problem of the 

 study of heredity of color, notwithstanding the 

 attention that has been given it, still bristles with 

 unanswered questions. Your experiments with the 

 old-fashioned four-o'clock may serve to give you 

 answers to some of them. 



A somewhat simpler but perhaps no less inter- 

 esting problem in color heredity may be taken up 

 in connection with the equally familiar columbine. 



There are thirty or more species of the genus 

 Aquilegia, or tribe of columbine, and examples of 

 one or two of the more common ones are sure to 

 be found in your garden. At least you can get 

 seeds from which to grow them at any florist's. 



[49] 



