These two years have given the expected result. The average number of
the rays, which had already arisen from 13 to 34 now at once came up to
47 and 55, the last figure being the sum of 21 and 34 and therefore the
probable uttermost limit to be reached before absolute doubling. The
maximum numbers came as high as 100 in 1900, and reached even 200 in
1901. Such heads are as completely double as are the [503] brightest
heads of the most beautiful double commercial varieties of composites.
Even the best white camomiles (_Chrysanthemum inodorum_) and the
gold-flowers or garden-marigolds (_Calendula officinalis_) do not come
nearer to purity since they always have scores of little tubular florets
between the rays on their disks.
Real atavists or real reversionists were seen no more after the first
purification of the race. I have continued my culture and secured last
summer (1903) as many and as completely doubled heads as previously. The
race has at once become permanent and constant. It has of course a wide
range of fluctuating variability, but the lower limit has been worked up
to about 34 rays, a figure never reached by the _grandiflorum_ parent,
from which my new variety is thus sharply separated.
Unfortunately the best flowers and even the best individuals of my race
are wholly barren. Selection has reached its practical limit. Seeds must
be saved from less dense heads, and no way has been found of avoiding
it. The ray-florets are sterile, even in the wild species, and when
growing in somewhat large numbers on the disk, they conceal the fertile
flowers from the visiting insects, and cause them also to be sterile.
The same is the case with the best cultivated forms. Their showiest
individuals are [504] barren, and incapable of the reproduction of the
race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account