I observed this anomaly in a
poppy called _Papaver commutatum_, and subjected it during several years
to a rigid selection of the richest individuals. No amelioration was to
be gained and the culture had to be given up. In the same way I found on
the bulbous buttercup (_Ranunculus bulbosus_) a strain varying largely
in the number of the petals, amounting often to 6-8, and in some flowers
even yet to higher figures. During five succeeding years I cultivated
five generations, often in large numbers, selecting always those which
had the highest number of petals, throwing out the remainder and saving
the seed only from the very best plants. I got a strain of selected
plants with an average number of nine petals in every flower, and found
among 4,000 flowers four having 20 petals or more, coming up even to 31
in one instance. But such rare instances had no influence whatever on
the selection, since they were not indicative of individual qualities,
but occurred quite accidentally on flowers of plants having only the
average number of petals. Now double flowers are widely known to occur
in other species of the buttercups, both in the cultivated varieties and
in some wild forms. For this reason it might be expected that through a
continuous selection of [358] the individuals with the largest numbers a
tendency to become double would be evolved.
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