Were All Flowers Once Wild?
Certainly all flowers once were wild - and all animals, too. There are certain kinds of flowers and animals which men have developed by choosing the kind of thing they wanted and leaving the rest, and so gradually getting such things as the garden rose, the pouter pigeon, and so on.
These are what we call cultivated varieties, but all of them, even the most curious and newest orchid, or pigeon or breed of dog, have been made from wild or natural forms. Even now, if we are careless, our garden plants will return sometimes more or less completely to their natural state, and so will domestic animals.
Plant breeders can do wonderful things in the way of developing new varieties, and it is now possible for them to secure patents on their new specimens. One of the most interesting patented flowers is the super-double nasturtium, holding flower patent 141. The ordinary single nasturtium has five petals; the ordinary double blossom has ten or twelve. The super-double nasturtium has about fifty petals. Mr. Joseph Simson, president of the W. Atlee Burpee Company which owns the patent, tells you the story.
“Nasturtiums were first found growing wild in South America over three hundred and fifty years ago and seed was taken to Europe. They became favorite garden flowers, and as time passed, many new colors were found, but until ‘93’, all of the garden nasturtiums had only five petals, just like the wild ones first found in South America. Then some plants were found in Mexico whose flowers had from ten to twelve petals. Seed of this new double nasturtium called Golden Gleam was brought to the United States.
“It became so popular that seedsmen immediately wanted to get doubles in other colors. To get these, David Burpee had over 40,000 crosses made. Golden Gleam was crossed with all the different colored singles known. Mr. Burpee knew that it would take at least two generations to get the colored doubles he wanted, so the work was speeded up by shipping the valuable crossed seed by airplane to parts of the world where the winters were warm. All of the plants in this first generation were single, like their parents.. The seed was carefully saved, and planted and the second generation watched carefully. When the plants came into bloom, about one out of every four had double flowers.
“One evening Mr. Burpee was walking through the greenhouses looking at his new double nasturtiums when all at once he noticed one that was different from all the rest. Instead of having ten or twelve petals, like the other doubles it had about fifty petals and looked like a begonia. This new super-double nasturtium was watched with the greatest of care, but it would not set any seed because the flowers did not have any pistils.
“New plants could be grown, however, by cutting off pieces of the branches and sticking them in wet sand, where they would take root. Although the super-double nasturtiums did not give any seed, the flowers had some pollen, and this was used to make crosses on ordinary doubles.
“Finally, by making many crosses and taking cuttings, success was achieved.”