LUTHER BURBANK 



numerous plants that produced not even an inti- 

 mation of a capsule, the flowering stem ending 

 abruptly like the end of a lead pencil. 



All in all the hybrids showing this extraordi- 

 nary variation in the seed bearing capsule rang- 

 ing from enormous enlargement of the capsule to 

 its entire obliteration make a very wonderful 

 and interesting study in heredity. 



It is of further interest to note that, although 

 these hybrids were raised from seed of an annual 

 poppy (hybridized, however, by a perennial), yet 

 without exception every member of the entire 

 company of thirty thousand is a perennial. 



The flowers, themselves, vary greatly in size, 

 some of them being seven or even eight inches in 

 diameter, while the smallest are perhaps only four 

 or five inches. Some are beautifully crimped, 

 others have flat petals, there being the most strik- 

 ing variations in form. 



Even the specimens that have unusually large, 

 plump seed capsules may produce no thoroughly 

 well developed seeds. In a gallon of the seed- 

 pods, from which one might expect perhaps two 

 quarts of plump seed, I usually obtain perhaps 

 from one hundred to three hundred or four hun- 

 dred grains, mostly of shrunken ill-shaped seeds. 

 Yet these shriveled seeds when sown produce good 

 plants. Even seeds that seem so abortive that it is 



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