PEDIGREED FIBER FLAX. 
15 
several of these crosses give promise of distinct improvement. The 
most definite results secured were from a cross between a tall blue- 
flowered fiber flax and a short pink-flowered seed-flax type. The 
object of the cross was to secure a tall pink-flowered fiber flax which 
would be distinct from the ordinary blue or white flowered types. 
The blue-flowered parent, Selection No. 1831, originated as a single 
plant selected for height in 1910 and has shown a superiority in stem 
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Fig. 5. — Pink-flowered flax and parent strains. Blue-Blossom Dutch fiber flax, 110 centi- 
meters high (on the left) ; pink-flowered hybrid, third generation, 90 centimeters bigh 
(in the center) ; pink-flowered seed flax, 65 centimeters high (on the right). 
length over unselected fiber flaxes for a period of five years. It has 
two, rarely four, basal branches and matures in 85 to 90 days. The 
average total height is 100 centimeters. 
The pink-flowered parent came from a single plant found as a 
mutation in a field of tall blue-blossom fiber flax which had been 
selected for height. In a field with an estimated number of 800,000 
plants only one pink-flowered plant was discovered. It has four to 
