334 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July, 19 14 



Some of the old-tirr.e 

 breeders were aware that 

 hybrids could be split 

 up into pure types, though 

 it was generally believed 

 and taught that every 

 living thing had \ of its 

 inheritance from its par- 

 ents, \ from its grand- 

 parents, T V from its 

 great grandparents, etc. 

 Gregor Mendel may well 

 be called the Newton of 

 heredity, for given certain 

 characters of two parents 

 it is possible by Mendel's 

 laws to state how the off- 

 spring will inherit those 

 characteristics. 



In the summer of 191 2 

 we accordingly crossed 

 the reds with Primrose 

 Perfection, and obtained 

 a quantity of seed. The 

 Pale Fellow was used as 

 the seed plant, the heads 

 were tied up in bags 

 before any of the florets 

 blossomed, and the pollen was taken from 

 a plant pure bred, or homozygous, for 

 red. 



A grain of sunflower pollen is a minute 

 spiked ball and a hundred will stick on the 

 point of a pin, but each carries uncounted 

 determiners. That particular pollen 

 carried, among many others, the deter- 

 miners for red and orange, dominant unit 

 characters, so that the first generation 

 were all practically like the red which 

 furnished the pollen. 



We knew that this would be true, for 

 many experiments have been made re- 

 cently both with plants and animals con- 

 firming Mendel's statement that in the 

 first generation all the offspring will be 

 alike, and will usually resemble one or the 

 other parent. That is, when a pure black 

 and a pure white rabbit are crossed, the 

 young will not be partly black and partly 

 white, but entirely black. These black 

 rabbits, however, carry the determiner 

 for white, and if bred together, the next 

 generation, F2, will consist of \ pure 

 white rabbits (like one grandparent), 

 \ pure black rabbits (like the other 

 grandparent), and \ mixed black and 

 white, or heterozygous, rabbits. 



Mendel's greatest contribution to 

 the science of heredity, as has already 

 been pointed out, was in showing that 

 in the second generation, technically 

 known as F2, the characters segregate. 



In this work with the sunflower we 

 were working with two characters so 

 that the desired colors would appear in 

 three out of sixteen and only one of 

 these would be pure bred or homozyg- 

 ous. The seeds from the greenhouse 

 were planted in the garden and watched 

 with the greatest interest. 



According to Mendel's laws, this 

 seed from the greenhouse, the F2 from 

 the primrose and chestnut-red, would 



A type named Sunrise, in which the rays are washed with red 



give in every 16, beside the 3 showing red in 

 primrose, 9 chestnut-reds, 3 yellows, and 

 1 primrose. 



It was these first, of course, that we were 

 anxious to see, and when in July an F2 

 plant blossomed bearing lovely rose colored 

 flower heads, we almost felt that we were 

 present at creation ! Later the colors came 

 according to expectation, and visitors to the 

 garden, found it hard to believe that the 

 plants, with common yellow blossoms were 

 from seeds from the very same flower- 

 head as those that produced the plants 

 bearing the bright pink or old rose blossoms. 

 There was nothing new; the red which 

 had been dulled by appearing on top cf 

 dark yellow showed its real beauty on the 

 light primrose background. 



A census of the F2 generation showed, of 

 the plants in blossom, 71 were chestnut-red, 

 the expectation was 69; 19 were yellow, 

 the expectation was 23; 25 were wine 

 colored, the expectation was 23; 8 primrose 

 and the expectation was 8. 



l"he light yellow Primrose Perfection and the dark red form, crossed 

 to give wine colored flowers 



Other interesting crosses 

 have been made, and 

 there are many others 

 that can be made for all 

 varieties, and apparently 

 all the species of annual 

 sunflowers can be crossed. 

 One very good hybrid 

 was a cross between the 

 so-called cucumber-leaved 

 sunflower and our red 

 sunflower. 



Among other things I 

 have worked to secure 

 long curled rays and 

 small disks and this has 

 been no slight task. One 

 day a workman left his 

 task of road grading to 

 say: "Your sunflowers 

 are mixed with the wild 

 sorts — that's what ails 

 them!" An old farmer 

 from Kansas, when shown 

 the new pink variety, 

 scratched his head doubt- 

 fully, "I shouldn't dare 

 have those in my garden, 

 for if one got loose in some man's farm he'd 

 sure think he was off his head." 



Many people ask if I think the red sun- 

 flowers will be better for chicken feed, which 

 of course moves me to wrath! 



I always use my finger in carrying the 

 pollen to the pistils, though some hybrid- 

 izers recommend soft brushes and others 

 pin scalpels. Every other day for a week 

 we rubbed pollen on the pistils that were 

 destined to make seeds. 



We were very fortunate in having en 

 annual for our first experiment, but in 

 spite of that I am always too impatient 

 to wait for all the frost to be out of the 

 ground, but start some of my most inter- 

 esting seedlings in the house or have them 

 started for me in the greenhouse. By the 

 middle of May the ground outside is ready 

 and our seed bed, with the rows marked by 

 small white markers with numbers in 

 drawing ink, looks like a pygmy's grave- 

 yard. We water the seeds every day, for 

 that is the secret of gardening in Colorado 

 and we lost many precious seeds before 

 we learned it. In about three weeks 

 the little seedlings are ready to trans- 

 plant and though not quite so hardy 

 as cabbages they stand transplanting 

 very well, indeed. We watch the 

 skies anxiously for a rainy day, and 

 when it does not come the seed- 

 lings are covered with cans during 

 the day or planted in the late after- 

 noon. 



The paper bags put on to protect 

 the flowers from the bees and butter- 

 flies serve also to protect the se«ds 

 from the birds, for when the seeds 

 begin to ripen finches come in flocks 

 to eat them. 



Be sure to have the soil just right, 

 for the finest plants will often show 

 real beauty only when given the best 

 possible conditions for growth. 



