ON SOME COMMON FAVORITES 



see great fields of companula as far north as 

 Alberta. They are said to grow even in Siberia. 

 So whatever the location of your garden, you will 

 probably have no difficulty in raising bluebells. 

 The plants, to be sure, are somewhat subject to 

 the attacks of fungus pests and insects, but aside 

 from this difficulty they are easily grown. It goes 

 without saying that a flower that has become 

 famous as the "bluebell" is generally blue in color. 

 Yet it is by no means unusual to see specimens that 

 are pure white. And it is this variation that gives 

 opportunity for some simple experiments in cross- 

 breeding. 



Nothing more is needed than to secure plants 

 of the ordinary blue variety and others that bear 

 white blossoms. The campanulas are easily 

 crossed, and you will have opportunity to test the 

 color variation in heredity in some of their sim- 

 plest relations. There are, to be sure, many spe- 

 cies of campanulas, and it is true that the garden 

 varieties are likely to have been hybridized. I 

 have, for example, raised seedlings from the white 

 campanula, Rotundiflora, without securing any 

 white ones. It will be necessary, therefore, for you 

 to test your varieties by raising plants of uncrossed 

 seeds at the same time that you are making the 

 cross-pollenations. But this complication will only 

 add interest to the experiment. 



[59] 



