Having very choice varieties of Chinese primroses, we concluded, last winter, to try an experiment on the variation of color. Two varieties were chosen for our purpose, one being the new porcelain blue, and the other a white-flowering variety with red stripes and blotches. We crossed the striped variety with pollen from the blue, thinking to produce a sort having the national colors - red, white and blue - in the same flower. From the seed produced by this crossing, we succeeded in growing about a hundred plants. In all stages of growth, the foliage and general appearance of the plants were identical with those of the blue-flowering variety, but when in bloom, not one flower was produced which had a speck of blue in it. About one dozen plants in the entire lot bore striped flowers - red on a white ground. The others produced flowers of a beautiful china rose with a very faint reflection of blue, forming a variety wholly unlike any which we previously had. The improvement in the size of bloom, and the low, robust habit of foliage is decidedly marked, and shows clearly that the influence of the pollen from the blue had materially affected the seed of the striped variety.

The plants were, to all appearance, likely to produce blue flowers, but it turned out that not one did so, and, except that the flowers have but a mere noticeable reflection of blue, they do not at all resemble those of the blue variety, though the foliage is decidedly similar. We shall continue our experiments by crossing the blue upon these new striped and rose-colored varieties, and we may eventually develop a more prominent influence of all the blue in the bloom as well as in the foliage. - John F. Rupp, Shiremanstown, Pa.