LUTHER BURBANK 



incredible they should germinate, may produce 

 perfectly healthy seedlings. 

 STRIKING VARIATIONS IN THE SECOND GENERATION 



The second generation poppies produced from 

 these seeds were among the most remarkable com- 

 panies of plants that I have ever seen. All who 

 saw them agreed that they were the most variable 

 lot of plants of a single fraternity that they had 

 ever observed. 



The diversity was so great that it might be said 

 that there were no two plants among the thousands 

 that were even approximately identical. No two 

 could be found in which differences could not 

 readily be observed in the foliage. 



Some of the peculiar forms of leaf were these : 

 (1) Long, smooth strap-shaped leaves sometimes 

 not more than half an inch wide and a foot or 

 more in length; sometimes smooth and sometimes 

 villous; dark green or light green. (2) Short and 

 stubby leaves, trifoliate, either villous or glaucous. 



(3) Leaves resembling those of the Oriental poppy. 



(4) Leaves like those of the opium poppy. (5) 

 Nondescript leaves, variously suggestive of the 

 leaves of primrose, cherry, dock, wormwood, dan- 

 delion, and scores of others. 



It is interesting to note that the blossoms of 

 the second generation varied somewhat less than 

 the leaves, although much more diversified than 



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