This information is from The Development of Garden Flowers by Richard Gorer, 1970. - a product of Turkish gardening - originally only 4 colour forms, a pink, a blue, and a single and double white - by 1725, 2000 named cultivars listed - modern forms very much larger than the wild type and appear to have collected many extra chromosomes - wild form 2n=16, but cultivated plants have from 19 to 30. - first triploid reported in 1870 - if this is true, then earlier cvs must have exhibited simple gigantism - flower development seems due entirely to selection and crossing selected forms, almost entirely by Dutch - at one time the doubles which had two or sometimes three corollas, were most popular, but waned in popularity and most are now lost. Diane Whitehead