LUTHER BURBANK 



petals. The size of the flower was also improved 

 by selection; but the color of the original — a pale 

 orange — ^refused to budge. 



Yet another poppy modification of interest was 

 that through which the Iceland poppy was devel- 

 oped until its seed capsules had fifty-six prolifera- 

 tions instead of the original one. 



The Varying Dominance of Colors 



The story of the color variation in poppies, as 

 illustrated in the development of the Shirley and 

 its modifications, and in the selective and hybrid- 

 izing experiments just related, furnish^ fairly 

 tangible evidence that the scheme of pigmentation 

 of a flower is of somewhat less fixed or fundamen- 

 tal character than the various characteristics of 

 form and leaf-system and breadth and arrange- 

 ment of petals and stems and ovules, that are 

 depended upon by the botanist in determining 

 plant relationships. 



The fact that a certain flower, for example, 

 may vary in color from bright scarlet to pure 

 white, and from salmon to blue, while still retain- 

 ing the botanical characteristics that would lead 

 any florist to classify it as a Shirley poppy, in 

 itself demonstrates the comparative unimportance 

 of any particular color in the scheme of plant 

 economy. 



There may be special conditions that make a 



[124] 



