110 THE SEED-GROWER. 
One of the finest additions to flowering plants in 
modern times is the Shirley poppy, which was bred by 
Rev. W. Hicks, Secretary of the Royal Horticultural 
Society in England. In 1880 he noticed in a waste 
corner of his garden a patch of the common wild field 
poppy, one solitary flower of which had a very narrow 
edge of white. This one flower he marked and saved 
the seed of it alone. Next year, out of perhaps two 
hundred plants, he had four or five on which all the 
flowers were edged. The best of these were marked 
and the seed saved, and so on for several years, the 
flowers all the while getting a larger infusion of white 
to tone down the red until they arrived at quite pale 
pink and one plant absolutely pure white. He then 
set himself to change the black central portions of the 
flowers from black to yellow or white, and at last 
secured a fixed strain with petals varying in color from 
the brightest scarlet to pure white, with all shades of 
pink between, and all varieties of flakes and edged 
flowers also, but all having yellow or white stamens, 
anthers and pollen and a white base. 
Burbank, the California plant-breeder, practicing on 
the line of selection, has largely increased the size of 
the common field daisy, the geranium and other flowers. 
One of his latest productions is a red California poppy. 
In the wild flower the color is yellow or orange. Hav- 
ing observed a single plant which bore flowers of orange 
streaked with red, he saved its seeds, and after a course 
of years of careful selection, similar to that described of 
Hicks and his poppy, Burbank has finally succeeded in 
obtaining a fixed variety bearing entirely red flowers. 
To Henry Eckford, of Wem, Shropshire, England, 
the world is indebted jor the great improvement in the 
flowers of sweet peas, made by him within the past 
