"Tetra Marigold"

Long used as a remedy for gout, colchicine is a slightly poisonous alkaloid compound which occurs in the seeds of the meadow saffron or autumn crocus, Colchicum autumnale. Two years ago Dr. Albert Francis Blakeslee, famed geneticist of the Carnegie Institution's station on Long Is land, announced the discovery of remark able effects produced on plants by colchicine (TIME, Nov. 8, 1937). The drug causes a doubling of the chromosomes (heredity carriers) in the germ cells of vegetables and flowers, producing sharp changes which breed true. It increased the growth rates of tobacco, phlox, onions, pumpkins, cosmos, radishes, portulaca, digitalis. It abolished the neck in bottle neck squashes.

Since then, scientists have produced a spearmint with lemon flavor, bigger tomatoes, peaches, strawberries. Dr. Blakeslee began to be harassed by letters from bald men and barren women asking if his "miracle drug" would grow hair or insure fertility. These impertinences irritated him so much that several times he almost wrote a letter to the newspapers.

Dr. Laszlo Havas, a Hungarian biochemist working at the University of Brus sels in Belgium, found that colchicine affects animals as well as plants. Certain bitterlings (small fish) acquire bright red tints when ready to breed. Dr. Havas discovered that the change can also be caused by colchicine, though more slowly; and that colchicine speeded up the action of the sex hormones.

Last week David Burpee, enterprising Philadelphia horticulturist, announced a new marigold, created by means of colchicine. Ordinary marigolds have two sets of chromosomes in their germ cells; the new one has four. Such plants are called tetraploids. The name of the Burpee creation is "Tetra Marigold" -- or Tetra for short.

Four inches in diameter, deep orange in color, Tetra Marigold has heavy, vigorous petals which make the flower exception ally durable both on the stalk and after cutting. "The colchicine," explained Mr. Burpee, "has about the same effect on the marigold as spinach on Popeye the Sailor."

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