APRIL 18, 1950 
n the 29th verse of the first chapter of Genesis, it is written “And God said: Be- 
hold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the 
earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall 
be for meat.” 
In the ensuing generations of the long ago pollen carried by insects, wind, 
etc., was carried from blossom to blossom and the ripened seed produced other 
plants of the floral world. In future’ generations man learned he could aid 
pollenation by gathering pollen and transferring it to the pistils of other flowers 
by using a camel’s hair brush. 
Improved varieties were selected from many seedlings and in this way new 
varieties became established by plant propagation or re-seeding. 
We now come to Gregor Mendel, universally considered to be the Father of 
Heredity. He was born in Austria in 1822 and died in 1884. He was a monk in 
the little town of Brunn. He became interested in botany and carried on experi- 
ments with the common garden pea. Much of his knowledge came from self- 
pollenation or inbreeding. He kept copious records of his experiments and 
eventually boiled down his findings in a small pamphlet presented to the Scientific 
Society of which he was a member. His momentous discovery was neglected 
by his own generation and only brought to the attention of the world in 1900 
when his little pamphlet was again unearthed in a library in Brunn by three 
European scientists (De Vries, Correns and Tschermak, who were also interested 
in heredity. ) 
While the fact of heredity had been known for thousands of years, I, too, was 
interested in producing seedlings from dahlias in line with Gregor Mendels 
experiments. In 1947 I began on dahlias. With a paralyzed left hand and arm, 
I had to work with the thumb and index finger of my right hand. When a dahlia 
showed its open pollen center, I placed my thumb on the center and massaged 
the pollen in a circular motion which engaged the pistils of the surrounding 
florets. Each floret is a true flower in itself with a short, thread-like pistil inclined 
to be sticky. This pistil received the pollen from the action of my thumb and 
thus, by inbreeding, seed pods soon developed. I also produced second genera- 
tion seed from gladiolus and amarylis, taking pollen from the stamens of the open 
flowers, using my thumb and index finger to complete the inbreeding by gently 
rubbing the pollen into the pistils. I have some difficulty with irises but I have 
shown friends how to transfer the pollen to the sticky, lip-like pistil and seed 
pods developed last year. 
Friends of the Dahlia Society of California, of which I was president for 
eight years, write me they produced Mendelian dahlia seeds last year and that 
they recently planted new seeds. 
I suggestdd your using your thumb on the pollen centers of roses, carnations 
and other flowers with pollen bearing stamens. Pistils, usually sticky, accept this 
pollen and seed production begins almost at once. 
This year I will have second generation gladiolus seedlings bloom for the 
first time. 
Hereafter I will offer Mendelian seed from named varieties of both dahlias 
and “este at $10 per hundred. Seed of both will be ready for distribution in 
October. 
