ON SOME INTERESTING ALIENS 



All these unique hybrids present such interest- 

 ing characteristics that it will be worth while to 

 record that the opium poppy that was used as the 

 original parent was of the Miss Sherwood variety, 

 but that later other opium poppies of every shade 

 and color that could be obtained were also used. 

 Perhaps in all twenty-five or thirty selected varie- 

 ties of opium poppies of various colors and differ- 

 ent forms were used as seed parents. The progeny, 

 however, as far as I could observe, varied little 

 and was not greatly influenced by the different 

 type of opium poppy used. However, the varia- 

 tion was so great in any event that it would be 

 difficult to judge as to this. 



In general, the minor colorings and doublings 

 of color seemed to have less effect in the heredity 

 than the more fixed original foliage and flowers 

 of the wild plants. The hybrids show doubleness 

 and selected colors very slightly, except in a few 

 cases in the second generation, when there was a 

 tendency to return toward the original forms. It 

 should be noted also that the Oriental poppy, al- 

 though failing of fertilization when treated with 

 pollen of the opium poppy, produced seeds abun- 

 dantly when fertilized with its own pollen. 



The size of the pollen and length of the pollen 

 tubes may conceivably have something to do with 

 the failure to effect hybridization when the Ori- 



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