ON SOME COMMON FAVORITES 



by the bees. In this way he may secure, as I have 

 done in some experiments, columbines of the most 

 wonderful variety. In some of the mixed hybrid 

 colonies, the blending of hereditary factors was 

 so complex that among ten thousand plants there 

 would be perhaps not five hundred that could be 

 classified as approximately identical with one 

 another, or as conforming to a specific type. 



In other words, there \vould be perhaps nine 

 thousand five hundred individual plants, each of 

 which might be said to constitute a distinct 

 variety. 



In the course of these experiments I made per- 

 haps ten thousand careful hand pollenations be- 

 tween different specimens of these variant hybrids, 

 and, needless to say, secured plants with excep- 

 tional blossoms of many kinds. 



A similar line of experiment is open to anyone 

 who has the smallest plot of ground in which he 

 can grow a few scores of columbines. 

 CAMPANULA AND COREOPSIS 



If you were to seek experiments of a still sim- 

 pler character, you might do well to consider the 

 beautiful campanula, known familiarly as the 

 bluebells of Scotland. 



These are hardy flowers, growing wild in great 

 profusion, even far to the north. On a trip to 

 Canada a good many years ago I was delighted to 



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