AN ODOURLESS MARIGOLD

Evening Star, Issue 22526, 19 December 1936, Page 23

AN ODOURLESS MARIGOLD

When the spicy-leaved marigold loses its scent—that’s news. Several hundred garden enthusiasts in London are planning to raise a new flower next year, since listening to a talk by the seed specialist, Mr David _ Burpee, at the Gardens of the Nations, Rockfeiler' Centre, where he introduced the “ collarette ” marigold, named “ Crown of Gold.” This marigold has entirely odourless foliage. The blossom, however, has a sweet fragrance and grows in chrysan-themum-like profusion, with long incurved peta'ls at the top and, around that, a series of broad petals which form a collar of gold. It took five years of world-wide research and 642 experimental plantings of marigolds and a Chinese missionary to produce the odourless variety, Mr Burpee related. He told how his systematic efforts to discover this >type of flower finally brought a letter from Mr 0. D. Holton in Kansu, China, who informed Mr Burpee that he had found a native marigold which the Chineses called “ the big golden aster, or Tibetan marigold.” It was wild,.its foliage was odourless. Would Mr Burpee pay £5 for some seeds? “Well, would I pay £5 for a few seeds of odourless marigold? ” Mr Burpee continued. “I.sent oh an international . money order for this amount very quickly.” Further experiments with the seeds, including hundreds of crosses, out-doors and in greenhouses, with African and French varieties, were made. These led to a pure specimen now within reach of all garden growers, Mr Burpee said. Winter production of this flower is being earned on at the Burpee Farms in California, where more than 500 pounds of seed have been produced. “Then, the new odourless variety is a cross between the wild Chinese and some other marigold?” he was asked. “ Not a cross—a mutation,” he replied. _ ■ A “ mutation ” it was added, is what occurs when the “chromosomes shift.” To be less technical, it seems that mutations are the really new, or fundamental, changes occurring _ in plants, the changes in characteristics transmitting from a parent to an offspring. As samples of marigold foliage, both old-fashioned and modern were passed among the visitors, the inevitable reaction to the introduction of the new was heard. “ What? An odourless marigold? But I liked that snappy ,_ pungent fragrance of the old,” one, visitor said.