24 CIECULAE XO. 113, BUEEAU OF PLAXT IXDUSTEY. 



FIRST APPEARANCE OF PURPLE FOLIAGE. 



Seed of the crop of 1911 in Kentucky was planted at Washing-- 

 ton, D. C, m 1912 and 60 weh-developed pistillate plants and 46 

 staminate plants were produced. Two of the pistillate plants had 

 purple fohage, strikingly different from the normal dark-green color 

 of all others. One of these was the thhd best plant in the plat, and 

 the other was above the average. The seed of the best purple plant 

 was saved by itself. It is of a brownish color, easily distinguished 

 from the normal gray of the other seeds, and it is larger in size than 

 the others. 



Sometimes the ^^'ild hemp from bird seed has foHage mth a copper- 

 colored hue, and m 1901 a small plat of hemp from imported Hun- 

 garian seed had several plants ^^^.th copper-colored foliage, but none 

 of these had the deep, rich purple color of the two marked plants 

 in tliis seed plat of 1912. This is a singular mutation, sho^^ing 

 strongly marked color variation m foliage and seed, arising from a 

 closely mbred stram of a uniform group of plants. 



[Cir. 113] 



