Abstract
IN reply to Major Latham's inquiry, I may say that in the red primroses which I have examined the colour is undoubtedly due to an anthocyan pigment. Pale yellow or white primroses contain no anthocyan. Flavonols rarely give rise to much colour, and do so only when present as salts (phenolates) of metals. Even in primroses there is often a very small amount of a yellow plastid pigment present which produces proportionately far greater colour effect than the flavonol derivatives that exist in the sap. The conversion of the yellow sap pigments (flavonols) to anthocyans is a process of reduction. Exactly what causes such a change to take place in plant-life is not yet fully determined, but the work of Prof. Keeble and of Miss Wheldale has done much towards elucidating this matter. When, as I boy, I tried the method of planting primroses upside down to get red or variegated varieties (the country folk in the district believed that this method was effective), it was never a success. In general, it would appear that new colour varieties in flowers are most frequently produced as a result of crossing. Seeds of red or white varieties of primrose are offered by some seedsmen.
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[Letters to Editor]. Nature 107, 301 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107301b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107301b0
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