ALBINISM, WITH SPECIAL KEFEKENCE TO SHIRLEY POPPIES. 479 



indebted to the account given in the R.H.S. Journ. Nov. 1900, and to 

 further information kindly supplied to me by the Rev. W. Wilks. 



The progenitor of all the Shirley Poppies was the seed of a single 

 flower of Papaver Bhceas which Mr. Wilks found in 1880 growing in a 

 clump of these plants in a waste corner of his garden, abutting on the 

 fields. This flower, which had a narrow white edging to its four petals, 

 was marked and its seed saved and sown. Next year, out of 200 plants 

 there were four or five on which all the flowers were white-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 a pale pink, and one plant absolutely 

 pure white with the exception of the black blotch at the base of the 

 petals. 



Up to this stage the black blotch was found in all the flowers, when 

 suddenly it disappeared from one plant. There was no gradual toning 

 down of this colour, as in the upper portions of the petals, no intermediate 

 brownish blotches. It just failed suddenly and completely, leaving a white 

 blotch in its place. Then, by careful selection of all plants which had white 

 centres, in about thirteen years the black colour was entirely eliminated 

 from the whole race. Mr. Wilks says that for several years past his strain 

 of the flowers has not given him one black rogue. 



This is not the case with seed supplied by the trade, but obtained 

 originally from Mr. Wilks's stock. They throw black rogues fairly often, 

 no doubt, because they have not been so carefully guarded as the others. 

 There is the less danger of the original stock being contaminated that 

 Mr. Wilks's garden is now surrounded by grass fields and woods where 

 the type form does not grow. He is still working at them in the hope of 

 some day obtaining a true yellow Papaver Bhceas, and he has already 

 arrived at distinct shades of salmon. I venture to predict that, whilst he 

 may well expect to obtain white forms again, yellow ones are beyond his 

 reach. 



There are some points to be noted about these plants : 



(i.) The race has been obtained by simple selection. It is still a pure 



species although an albino race. No admixture of any other species has 



caused variation. 



(ii.) The race breeds true. So long as they pollinate one another they 

 produce no black-centred flowers, and the upper portions of the petals all 

 show incomplete albinism. 



(iii.) Whilst the scarlet pigment of the upper parts of the petals has 

 gradually diminished for twenty-four generations and is not yet suppressed, 

 the black centre disappeared suddenly and completely. This would appear 

 to indicate that the two pigments are distinct. 



(iv.) There is no reason to suppose that cultivation has had any effect 

 whatever in diminishing the pigment. Seeing that in a state of nature 

 there are species with individual differences in colour-intensity, as well as 

 albino races, the probability is that if Mr. Wilks had grown, selected, and 

 guarded these Poppies in a cornfield, with as much care as he has in his 

 garden, he would have achieved the same result, and it is not impossible 

 that it would have been arrived at in a shorter time. For so long as it is 

 the general opinion of horticulturists that cultivation tends to increase 



