THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 149 



plant's food is not "nitrogen gas taken from the air." He is 

 inclined to doubt that Burbank bred a walnut with shell so thin 

 that the birds ate it and so he had to breed a thicker shell on 

 it. One wonders whether the cherries, plums, and peaches 

 in that remarkable part of the world are also enclosed in shells. 

 Some of the nuts produced had so much tannin as to be "abso- 

 lutely dangerous." Probably a persimmon in Burbank's gard- 

 en would be regarded as a calamity. Many other equally aston- 

 ishing "facts" are recorded, but if the "Wizard" can take a 

 single "poppy seed capsule, divide it into four sections and, by 

 pollinating each section, produce from one section an annual 

 plant, from another a perennial, from the third quarter crim- 

 son poppies and from the fourth white ones," he is indeed 

 woithy of his title. The feat of taking a dozen rabbits from 

 the silk hat of any person in the audience is quite tame by 

 comparison. Still other things are mentioned about which 

 even the common or garden variety of scientist knows some- 

 thing and this knowledge enables him to realize what delight- 

 ful fairy stories may be found on half-facts. The author 

 claims the white blackberry to be an exclusive Burbank "crea- 

 tion," but those who live out nearer the tall timber are inclined 

 to think that the original white blackberry grew in Adam's 

 garden. Sixty-five thousand bushes were destroyed in making 

 Burbank's plant. Referring to the fact that Burbank bred a 

 red flowered form of the California poppy, the author adds : 

 "Many acts has this man done which savor of the miraculous, 

 but none more marvellous than this." This should be encour- 

 aging to the numerous breeders who have produced red flow- 

 ers in other species. According to our author, it is the easiest 

 thing in the world to make a blue rose and yet with a big 

 prospective demand for such a flower the Wizard refuses to 

 gratify us. He is reported to have crossed both the apple 

 and the mountain ash with the blackberry and "strangely 



