56 Master Minds of Modern Science 



rhubarb had as its original parent a wild Australian 

 rhubarb. It has been extensively grown in America and 

 Great Britain, and one of Burbank's customers for this 

 plant was the late King Edward. 



One of the strangest things Burbank ever did was to 

 take the odour out of onions. We all know that many 

 cooks cannot handle onions because they make tears 

 stream from their eyes. The California wizard went 

 to work and in five years produced an absolutely odourless 

 onion, which was large, tender, and wholesome. But most 

 of us are so wedded to the old strong-smelling type of bulb 

 that this particular novelty had little success. 



In the realm of flowers Burbank produced many new 

 things. One is a new gladiolus, called the California, 

 which blooms all round the stalk like a hyacinth. He 

 experimented with the arum or calla lily and produced a 

 miniature form of this exquisite bloom which is less than 

 an inch in diameter. Perhaps the best known of all his 

 new flowers is the Shasta daisy, one parent of which is the 

 common field daisy. Yet the Shasta is a beautiful giant 

 with a magnificent bloom from five to seven inches in 

 diameter. Another of his triumphs is a monster amaryllis 

 with blooms ten inches in diameter, bright with the most 

 glorious colours. 



Some one visiting his gardens once said to him : 

 " Mr Burbank, you do marvels in changing shape, 

 colour, and size of flowers, but could you take a flower 

 with an unpleasant odour and make it sweet-smelling? " 



The wizard smiled. " I might try," he said. He did 

 try. He took the dahlia, that handsomest of autumn 

 flowers, but having an odour which to most people is 

 somewhat offensive, and within a few years changed it 

 so that its showy blooms were almost as sweet as those 

 of the clove carnation. 



There does not seem to be anything that this amazing 

 man would not try, and little that he was unable to do. 



