Title: The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade
Identifier: americanfloristw3008amer (find matches)
Year: 1885 (1880s)
Authors: American Florists Company
Subjects: Floriculture; Florists
Publisher: Chicago : American Florist Company
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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222 The American Florist. Feb. 29> which something is known of the Men- delian behavior of their mutating char- acters, yield to the explanation that there has been simply the loss of a dominant character and hence the ap- pearance of a related recessive charac- ter. Of course, there are a great num- ber of changes that have taken place as bud mutations, of which we have no data bearing upon their behavior after crossing. Indeed, the cases that I pre- sent in which I believe there is rea- sonable evidence that the change is from dominant to recessive, are simply eases analogous to those in which the behav- ior of the crossed characters are known. Again, there are bud mutations which consist of the addition of petals or the change of other flower organs to petals (doubling), which are only changes in the internal correlation of growth, in the sense used by plant physiologists. Some abnormal change in the mechan- ics of growth may also explain weeping branches, monstrous flowers, fruits, etc., but of these occurrences we have yet no reasonable explanation. I also leave out of consideration, the production of varie- gated plants. This phenomenon will, I believe, be soon explained as due to some pathological cause, as bacterial or enzyme action. They seem to belong to the same general class, as the production of "mosaic" or "calico" tobacco plants; and this disease, we know, can be com- municated by touch. We will consider only certain cases in which we have some reason to believe that the char- acters would behave according to Men- del's law when crossed. Color sports are perhaps the most common that we have. In the tomato, for instance, I have discovered four au- thentic cases in which a red tomato plant has produced a branch that bore yellow fruit; but I have heard of no instance in which a pure yellow tomato has sported to a red. In this plant. Hurst has shown conclusively that red is completely dominant to yellow. In the potato, most reported cases of bud variation are merely horticul- tural gossip. I am inclined to think that bud variation must be very rare - in this plant. Such authorities as A. W. Sutton and P. de Vilmorin, than whom none are more experienced or more com- petent, were able to cite only four cases and two cases respectively. Mr. Sutton says, "I have no hesita- tion whatever in affirming that there ii no potato in commerce today in Eng- land, and I might say in Europe, which owes its origin as a distinct potato to bud variation in any form whatever." The instances he refers to are, he says, changes in color, alone. He cites Forty- fold, Beauty of Hebron, and Blue Giant as having varied from colored skins to white. Rector of Woodstock, however, appears to have produced a purple varie- gated skin from a white. In this case, though, it is unlcnown whether the par- ent tuber possessed the power of form- ing the purple dye, as is indicated by some of our own white varieties that have purple tinted sprouts. There has also appeared a similar va- riation in White Pearl, reported to me by Prof. F. E. Bennet. This potato, white in color, with pink sprouts, ap- pears to have produced a purple blotched variety. Old potato growers, however, say that the parent of the White Pearl had a purple skin. Vil- morin reports White Giant out of Blue Giant and Early Puritan (white) out of Early Rose (pink). Munson states that Bliss Triumph (red) has varied to white. In my own experience I have noticed but three color variations after care- fully examining 800 varieties. They are white variations out of the colored va- rieties. Early Sunrise, Bole Zoegling and La Bretonne. Other variations, appar- ently authentic, that have been reported in this country, are white variations from Early Rose, Early Ohio, Blue Vic- tor and Peach Blow. The chrysanthemum is a plant which produces probably as many bud varia- tions as any of our cultivated species. I have never heard of a pure yellow chrys- anthemum sporting to a color. On the authority of M. Ghys, who has given it a great deal of study, the general ten- dency is to sport from purple to red to white to yellow. A pure yellow, the original color of the plant, never sports to color. To explain this, we have only to imagine the germ cells of the blue chrysanthemum to contain the factors for determining blue, red, white and yel- low color, possibly dominant to each other in the order given. Then, as one or more of these factors is dropped, a difi^erent color appears. I think we may safely say that in horticultural plants which tend to sport in color, carnations, azaleas, geraniums, roses,—the tendency is toward the loss of a color factor. Of course there are many cases in which a color is deepened, in a variety which already possesses the ability to form the dye; but I do not think we need to consider this feature at present. It is a ditlerent thing from deflnite bud mutation. The same general feature is true of fruits: purple plums produce yellow plums, blackberries produce white varia- tions; dark grapes throw white sports. Time will not permit me to cite all of the known instances, but in general, there is the loss of a color character. Even in the cases that are apparent excep- tions to the rule, the variety may lose its color and afterwards regain it. We cannot help but feel, however, that there are distinct limits to the variation, and that we are not witnessing chance changes in any direction. We can imagine that in the cell divi- sion that lays down the basis of the sporting branch, something may be left behind. Here we may have the entire loss of a color. Again, there may be such a shuffling of the cell contents, that a color cannot develop but remains latent. Years afterward, another shuf- fling of characters may allow the color to reappear. Of course this is specix- lation; but as speculation it is easier to imagine the production of degressive and retrogressive mutations, than the production of new characters by progres- sive mutations. Such speculation seems to be in accord with the facts. Another common type of variation is the production of cut-leaved varieties in difl'erent species. These new productions sometimes retain the ability to produce entire leaves and so Jump back to the original form. But here, again, the changes are definite, and have been noted in very unlike groups of plants. The changes taking place certainly
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CARNATION HARVARD. Back vie\\- of flower, showing fine calyx.

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