7 to 9 inches across its face as now trans
formed by him.
He doubled the size and multiplied al
most infinitely the colors of the Gladi
olus; and because of the extra weight
of the flowers had to increase the size
of the stalk which bore them. He pro
duced the Shasta Daisy from the two in
significant parents shown below.
And there is hardly a flower which
grows to which in some way or another
Mr. Burbank has not added size, or bril
liancy, or delicacy, or shapeliness, or
scent.
Through flowers, too, Mr. Burbank has
ferreted out many of the deeply hidden
secrets of plant life which he has turned
to good account in his breeding of the
so-called useful plants.
For, above all other forms of plant
life, flowers exemplify Nature's devices
for self-improvement.
Mr. Burbank says that the flowers, as
if knowing that they depend upon but
terflies and bees for the pollination
which is to perpetuate them, advertise
for these little pollen carriers adver
tise through their colors, their scents
and the nectar which they give in return.
And that those flowers which are the
biggest and brightest and the most per
fect of their kinds, being the best adver
tisers, arc surest to attract the attention
of the visiting insects and thus arc
surest of perpetuation.
While the pale, the poor and the de
formed of the species, with less effective
advertising, and less appeal to the in
sects upon which they depend, arc apt
to wither and die without offspring.
By the same simple, elemental methods
which the bees teach, the plant breeder
can accomplish definite, concrete, amaz
ing results of which Nature, after cen
turies of ponderous work, has only suc
ceeded in giving the faintest hint.
Beside the bees and butterflies, Nature,
in many ingenious ways, strives to carry
on her slow elimination of the unfit.
Her rainy seasons serve to drown cer
tain of her plants that are unworthy to
survive.
Her windstorms, droughts, freezing
spells and a hundred other influences
tend to eliminate the poor, the weak and
the deformed among her plants.
So that those which have the greatest
right to survival may be given the best
opportunity uncrowded to live and
reproduce and multiply.
Again the skill and science of the
breeder of plants may be applied to pro
duce in a single season the result which
Nature might never, with centuries of
wind, and snow, and hail, and 'drought,
and rain, be able to accomplish.
By planting a thousand, or a hundred
thousand seeds, the plant breeder, in a
few brief weeks, may select the six or the
eight or the ten resulting plants which
show their superiority over their fellows
along the line he wishes to cultivate.
To those who have seen Luther Bur
bank ut his work, his amazing skill and
knowledge of the characteristics of the
useful plants at once become evident;
but as he goes rtbout among his flowers,
his tenderness and sympathy in handling
them give evidence of more than skill and
knowledge they give evidence of love
and of perfect understanding.
LutKer BurbanK's Shasta Daisy
ry , VI A WBkHi
and its Tiny Parents
M )
