Post by Graham on Jan 30, 2014 6:04:14 GMT -5
The passages to follow are an extracts from Luther Burbanks "The Camassia—Will It Supplant The Potato?" (you can find the source here).
Looking at the photograph below it would seem he had real success in increasing the size of the bulbs.
Burbank's improved camassia bulbs, contrasted with the bulb of its wild progenitors.
Unfortunately his hybrids appear to have been lost. But they cant be recreated, and there's been some discussion about putting together a group to do that on the Radix facebook page. So if your up to the task make yourself known.
FOR the most part plants are cultivated for a single quality. If a plant produces beautiful flowers, we do not usually demand that it shall also produce valuable fruit. We do not ask that a plant which produces a valuable fruit like the tomato shall also produce tubers like the potato. It is only by accident rather than by special design or selective breeding on the part of man that a certain number of plants, notably members of the rose family, produce beautiful blossoms and delicious fruits as well.
The apple-tree in full bloom is indeed a beautiful object, but the apple would probably be raised quite as generally as it is if its blossoms were altogether unattractive. The Japanese, to be sure, have developed the blossoms of their fruits, but in so doing they have usually neglected the quality of the fruit itself.
And as to garden vegetables, about the only member of the clan that is cultivated for its flower as well as for its edible product is the Pink Chive that I have recently developed.
There exists a tribe of plants, however, of which we have hitherto made no mention, that possesses qualities of flower-bearing of a high order, combined with the capacity to produce roots of such quality of edibility as to suggest competition with our best tuber bearers, including the potato itself.
These plants are certain wild members of the lily family that have no colloquial name except that given them by the Indians; a name that has been variously transcribed as Quamash and Camass. From this name the botanist has developed the generic title Camassia. The not altogether inappropriate name of wild hyacinth is sometimes given the species that grows in the Eastern United States.
But it will be most convenient in speaking of the tribe to adopt the generic name of Camassia, in lieu of a better.
The various species of camassia grow wild in rich moist meadows and along small streams. All the species are hardy. The leaves of the plant are usually lance-shaped, about three-quarters of an inch in width, and of length varying according to the fertility of the soil, usually from eight to sixteen inches. The flower stalk in ordinary soil varies with the different species from eighteen inches to nearly four feet in height.
The flowers are usually purple, blue, or white. In some of the new hybrid species the colour has changed to rose, and in others it inclines toward crimson.
All the camassias are bulbous, of course, like other members of the lily family. But there is a great difference in the size of the bulbs among the different wild species, and, as will appear presently, there is enormous variation when the different species are hybridized.
HYBRIDIZING THE CAMASSIAS
My experiments on a large scale with the Camassia have been carried out for more than twenty years, and have included work with five species.
So far as I am aware, no one had undertaken to improve any of these until my experiments were instituted, about 1890.
My first work was done with a species known as Camassia Leichtlinii, which grows abundantly on Vancouver Island. Considered as a flowering plant this is the finest of the native varieties. It grows almost altogether in crevasses of rocks, but it produces very attractive large, deep purple flowers, with wide petals. First the attempt was made to improve the flower, and I introduced a good many years ago a modified variety of the species that was somewhat dwarfed as to leaf and stem but in which the flowers had been much enlarged, the petals broadened, and the colour changed to a dark blue.
As my experiments continued, however, my interest in the camassia increased, and I began to give attention to the bulb of the plant as well as to the flower.
I began working with another species, the Camassia Cusickii, which has relatively large bulbs; and with another of the well-known nature species, Camassia esculenta, the bulbs of which are much smaller but of recognized edible quality.
Most of my work in hybridizing and selective breeding has been done with the three species just named, but I have also raised somewhat extensively two other species, known as C. Howellii and C. Fraseri, as well as a great number of wild varieties of all the different species from British America, Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada.
From the outset individual plants were selected of each species and variety that were the best I could obtain. Here, as so often elsewhere, I was enabled to produce considerable improvement merely by selecting individual plants that showed the most desirable qualities of flower and bulb, destroying the inferior ones. From the outset careful attention was paid both to the flowers and to the bulbs, as I desired to produce plants that would be ornaments in the flower garden and at the same time would grow enormous bulbs that would make them valuable acquisitions to the vegetable garden.
Having secured the best representatives of each species and variety by selection, I began an extensive series of hybridizing experiments.
I found it a relatively simple matter to hybridize the different camassias. All the species seemed to combine quite readily.
The characteristics shown by the hybrids are those that experience with other plants led one to expect. In the first generation, there is relative fixity, and the greater or less dominance of one parent or the other. In the second generation, the hybrids break up into numerous forms, varying widely as to color of leaves, height of stalk, and size of flowers, as well as in form and size and quality of bulbs.
Some of these hybrids of the second generation produced bulbs smaller than those of their progenitors.
But others grew bulbs of enormous size. Even to one who is accustomed to observe the striking variations that are produced through hybridization, it was surprising to see the extraordinary impetus given to the bulbs of the camassia by the union of different species.
The bulbs of the common edible species, C. esculenta, are relatively insignificant, usually growing about one-half to three-quarters of an inch in diameter. The C. Cusickii produces the largest bulb of all, but it is large only in a relative sense, being usually little over an inch in diameter and two inches in length.
But among the second generation hybrids were some that produced bulbs three and a half inches across and four or even five inches in length.
The difference was about that between an English walnut and a large turnip.
In viewing these gigantic bulbs, sprung thus from dwarf ancestors, one was reminded of the gigantic hybrid walnut trees that came of the union of Persian and California walnuts; of the mammoth Phenomenal Berry; of the Giant Amaryllis; and of sundry other hybrids that were stimulated to excessive growth of stem or fruit or flower by the union of parents of just the right degree of affinity.
FLOWER AND BULB IMPROVED SIMULTANEOUSLY
Meantime I had taken pains to cross dark flowers with dark flowers, and white ones with white, and pink with pink, wherever possible, so as to intensify the various types.
As already noted, there is a pronounced tendency to variation even among the wild species, all the camassias sometimes producing pale greenish, almost white, flowers. These, if grown from seed and carefully selected, can be changed to snowy white. Some of the variations secured bear flowers that are truly white, while others that are called white are really of a pale greenish hue. The seedlings of these greenish white ones tend ordinarily to produce blossoms that revert to the pale blue color of the species from which they were derived.
So the production of a truly white camassia required continued selection—a process of gradual intensification.
But of course hybridizing facilitated this process. It also gave opportunity for selection with regard to flowers having broad petals—narrowness of petal being one of the original defects of the camassia as a flower. Moreover, a number of extra petals have been added in some cases, and it is only a matter of time until double camassias will be produced.
All along the line, then, the flowers of the camassias have been improved by selecting from among the best of the hybrids. Twenty thousand bulbs have been under observation at the same time, and improvement has been rapid.
In the end, the camassia will prove to be an ornamental plant of distinct value, highly prized for its flowers.
But it will be prized also for its bulb, which, in the developed and selected hybrids, is assuming satisfactory proportions, as already pointed out, and which has undoubted food value, surpassing the potato even, both as to nutriment and flavor. And of course the work of development in this direction is only at its beginning. The results already attained justify the expectation that the bulbs of the developed camassias will be of really notable size, constituting a garden vegetable of very exceptional food value.
The wild camassias generally produce but few offsets. But some of the hybrid ones not only produce numerous offsets, but tend to divide like the garlic, sometimes making five or six enormous bulbs in a season. Of course this habit has been carefully encouraged among the seedlings, as this rapid multiplication will be of obvious importance when the camassias are grown either for bulbs or for flowers.
I have also successfully hybridized some of the camassias with certain of their relatives, the squills (genus Scilla), of which I have imported many species from South America. The two tribes hybridize readily. The hybrids showed conspicuous changes in the bulb. The outside covering of the bulb of the squill is whitish, while that of the camassia is usually darker. The hybrids showed more compact bulbs of a lighter colour than those of their maternal parent, the camassia. But there are all gradations in the bulbs as to color and other qualities.
I have worked very extensively with the squills, but with reference solely to the development of the flowers, with results that will be outlined in another connection. Here I refer to them only as suggesting that these plants may be of value in introducing new qualities into the strains of hybrid camassias, stimulating further variation, and thus giving opportunity for betterment both of bulb and flower.
It is too soon to predict just what place these improved camassias may take in the vegetable garden. But the experiments have progressed far enough to show that the species has hitherto unrecognised possibilities.
Looking at the photograph below it would seem he had real success in increasing the size of the bulbs.
Burbank's improved camassia bulbs, contrasted with the bulb of its wild progenitors.
Unfortunately his hybrids appear to have been lost. But they cant be recreated, and there's been some discussion about putting together a group to do that on the Radix facebook page. So if your up to the task make yourself known.
The Camassia—Will It Supplant The Potato?
And Other Tubers Of Value For Food
And Other Tubers Of Value For Food
FOR the most part plants are cultivated for a single quality. If a plant produces beautiful flowers, we do not usually demand that it shall also produce valuable fruit. We do not ask that a plant which produces a valuable fruit like the tomato shall also produce tubers like the potato. It is only by accident rather than by special design or selective breeding on the part of man that a certain number of plants, notably members of the rose family, produce beautiful blossoms and delicious fruits as well.
The apple-tree in full bloom is indeed a beautiful object, but the apple would probably be raised quite as generally as it is if its blossoms were altogether unattractive. The Japanese, to be sure, have developed the blossoms of their fruits, but in so doing they have usually neglected the quality of the fruit itself.
And as to garden vegetables, about the only member of the clan that is cultivated for its flower as well as for its edible product is the Pink Chive that I have recently developed.
There exists a tribe of plants, however, of which we have hitherto made no mention, that possesses qualities of flower-bearing of a high order, combined with the capacity to produce roots of such quality of edibility as to suggest competition with our best tuber bearers, including the potato itself.
These plants are certain wild members of the lily family that have no colloquial name except that given them by the Indians; a name that has been variously transcribed as Quamash and Camass. From this name the botanist has developed the generic title Camassia. The not altogether inappropriate name of wild hyacinth is sometimes given the species that grows in the Eastern United States.
But it will be most convenient in speaking of the tribe to adopt the generic name of Camassia, in lieu of a better.
The various species of camassia grow wild in rich moist meadows and along small streams. All the species are hardy. The leaves of the plant are usually lance-shaped, about three-quarters of an inch in width, and of length varying according to the fertility of the soil, usually from eight to sixteen inches. The flower stalk in ordinary soil varies with the different species from eighteen inches to nearly four feet in height.
The flowers are usually purple, blue, or white. In some of the new hybrid species the colour has changed to rose, and in others it inclines toward crimson.
All the camassias are bulbous, of course, like other members of the lily family. But there is a great difference in the size of the bulbs among the different wild species, and, as will appear presently, there is enormous variation when the different species are hybridized.
HYBRIDIZING THE CAMASSIAS
My experiments on a large scale with the Camassia have been carried out for more than twenty years, and have included work with five species.
So far as I am aware, no one had undertaken to improve any of these until my experiments were instituted, about 1890.
My first work was done with a species known as Camassia Leichtlinii, which grows abundantly on Vancouver Island. Considered as a flowering plant this is the finest of the native varieties. It grows almost altogether in crevasses of rocks, but it produces very attractive large, deep purple flowers, with wide petals. First the attempt was made to improve the flower, and I introduced a good many years ago a modified variety of the species that was somewhat dwarfed as to leaf and stem but in which the flowers had been much enlarged, the petals broadened, and the colour changed to a dark blue.
As my experiments continued, however, my interest in the camassia increased, and I began to give attention to the bulb of the plant as well as to the flower.
I began working with another species, the Camassia Cusickii, which has relatively large bulbs; and with another of the well-known nature species, Camassia esculenta, the bulbs of which are much smaller but of recognized edible quality.
Most of my work in hybridizing and selective breeding has been done with the three species just named, but I have also raised somewhat extensively two other species, known as C. Howellii and C. Fraseri, as well as a great number of wild varieties of all the different species from British America, Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada.
From the outset individual plants were selected of each species and variety that were the best I could obtain. Here, as so often elsewhere, I was enabled to produce considerable improvement merely by selecting individual plants that showed the most desirable qualities of flower and bulb, destroying the inferior ones. From the outset careful attention was paid both to the flowers and to the bulbs, as I desired to produce plants that would be ornaments in the flower garden and at the same time would grow enormous bulbs that would make them valuable acquisitions to the vegetable garden.
Having secured the best representatives of each species and variety by selection, I began an extensive series of hybridizing experiments.
I found it a relatively simple matter to hybridize the different camassias. All the species seemed to combine quite readily.
The characteristics shown by the hybrids are those that experience with other plants led one to expect. In the first generation, there is relative fixity, and the greater or less dominance of one parent or the other. In the second generation, the hybrids break up into numerous forms, varying widely as to color of leaves, height of stalk, and size of flowers, as well as in form and size and quality of bulbs.
Some of these hybrids of the second generation produced bulbs smaller than those of their progenitors.
But others grew bulbs of enormous size. Even to one who is accustomed to observe the striking variations that are produced through hybridization, it was surprising to see the extraordinary impetus given to the bulbs of the camassia by the union of different species.
The bulbs of the common edible species, C. esculenta, are relatively insignificant, usually growing about one-half to three-quarters of an inch in diameter. The C. Cusickii produces the largest bulb of all, but it is large only in a relative sense, being usually little over an inch in diameter and two inches in length.
But among the second generation hybrids were some that produced bulbs three and a half inches across and four or even five inches in length.
The difference was about that between an English walnut and a large turnip.
In viewing these gigantic bulbs, sprung thus from dwarf ancestors, one was reminded of the gigantic hybrid walnut trees that came of the union of Persian and California walnuts; of the mammoth Phenomenal Berry; of the Giant Amaryllis; and of sundry other hybrids that were stimulated to excessive growth of stem or fruit or flower by the union of parents of just the right degree of affinity.
FLOWER AND BULB IMPROVED SIMULTANEOUSLY
Meantime I had taken pains to cross dark flowers with dark flowers, and white ones with white, and pink with pink, wherever possible, so as to intensify the various types.
As already noted, there is a pronounced tendency to variation even among the wild species, all the camassias sometimes producing pale greenish, almost white, flowers. These, if grown from seed and carefully selected, can be changed to snowy white. Some of the variations secured bear flowers that are truly white, while others that are called white are really of a pale greenish hue. The seedlings of these greenish white ones tend ordinarily to produce blossoms that revert to the pale blue color of the species from which they were derived.
So the production of a truly white camassia required continued selection—a process of gradual intensification.
But of course hybridizing facilitated this process. It also gave opportunity for selection with regard to flowers having broad petals—narrowness of petal being one of the original defects of the camassia as a flower. Moreover, a number of extra petals have been added in some cases, and it is only a matter of time until double camassias will be produced.
All along the line, then, the flowers of the camassias have been improved by selecting from among the best of the hybrids. Twenty thousand bulbs have been under observation at the same time, and improvement has been rapid.
In the end, the camassia will prove to be an ornamental plant of distinct value, highly prized for its flowers.
But it will be prized also for its bulb, which, in the developed and selected hybrids, is assuming satisfactory proportions, as already pointed out, and which has undoubted food value, surpassing the potato even, both as to nutriment and flavor. And of course the work of development in this direction is only at its beginning. The results already attained justify the expectation that the bulbs of the developed camassias will be of really notable size, constituting a garden vegetable of very exceptional food value.
The wild camassias generally produce but few offsets. But some of the hybrid ones not only produce numerous offsets, but tend to divide like the garlic, sometimes making five or six enormous bulbs in a season. Of course this habit has been carefully encouraged among the seedlings, as this rapid multiplication will be of obvious importance when the camassias are grown either for bulbs or for flowers.
I have also successfully hybridized some of the camassias with certain of their relatives, the squills (genus Scilla), of which I have imported many species from South America. The two tribes hybridize readily. The hybrids showed conspicuous changes in the bulb. The outside covering of the bulb of the squill is whitish, while that of the camassia is usually darker. The hybrids showed more compact bulbs of a lighter colour than those of their maternal parent, the camassia. But there are all gradations in the bulbs as to color and other qualities.
I have worked very extensively with the squills, but with reference solely to the development of the flowers, with results that will be outlined in another connection. Here I refer to them only as suggesting that these plants may be of value in introducing new qualities into the strains of hybrid camassias, stimulating further variation, and thus giving opportunity for betterment both of bulb and flower.
It is too soon to predict just what place these improved camassias may take in the vegetable garden. But the experiments have progressed far enough to show that the species has hitherto unrecognised possibilities.
