LUTHER BURBANK 



red flower fit into its environment a little better 

 than a yellow flower, or vice versa ; but either red 

 flowers or yellow ones or pink ones or white will 

 attract the insects, and thus fulfill the purpose for 

 which color in the flower has been developed. 



That, doubtless, explains why it is relatively 

 easy to modify the color of a flower, within cer- 

 tain limits, and — what amounts to saying the same 

 thing— -why the same species of flower may so often 

 be found presenting different colors or shades of 

 color in different localities, or under slightly vary- 

 ing conditions of cultivation. But perhaps the 

 chief interest of the entire matter of the coloration 

 of flowers, and specifically the chief interest of 

 such a development as that of the blue poppy, is 

 found in the suggestions given as to the imderlying 

 principles of heredity involved in color transfor- 

 mations. 



It would seem as if we are justified in conclud- 

 ing from the evidence that the hereditary factors 

 for the production of many different pigments are 

 mingled in the germ plasm of any given species of 

 flowering plant. 



If one color predominates over another in the 

 flower, it is because its pigment is dominant over 

 other pigments, and the study of color dominance 

 furnishes interesting side lights on the question of 

 the hereditary transmission of unit characters. 



[126] 



