BURBANK'S PRODUCTION OF HORTICULTURAL NOVELTIES. 467 



his selections are made. It is evident that in a variety of mixed 

 condition or in the offspring of a hybrid and even in ordinary fluc- 

 tuating variability the chance of finding some widely divergent 

 individual increases with the number of the plants. In some hun- 

 dred specimens a valuable sport can hardly be expected, but among 

 many thousands it may well occur. The result depends largely upon 

 these great numbers. In one year he burned up sixty-five thousand 

 two- and three-year old hybrid seedling berry bushes in one great 

 bonfire and had fourteen others of similar size. He grafts his hy- 

 brid plums by the hundreds on the same old tree, and has hundreds 

 of such trees, each covered with the most astonishing variety of 

 foliage and fruit. Smaller species he sows in seed-boxes and selects 

 them before they are planted out, saving, perhaps, only one in thou- 

 sands or ten thousands of seedlings. Thornless brambles, spineless 

 cactus, improved sweet grasses {Anthoxanthum odoratum) and many 

 others I saw in their wooden seed-boxes being selected in this way. 

 The same principle prevails in the selection of the species which 

 are submitted to his treatment. Here, also, the result depends chiefly 

 upon the numbers. He tries all kinds of berries and numerous spe- 

 cies of flowering plants. Some of them soon prove to be promising 

 and are chosen, others offer no prospects and are rejected. The 

 total number of the species he has taken into his cultures amounts 

 to 2500. The list of the introductions of last year shows 500 species, 

 mostly from South America and Australia. Formerly he often made 

 excursions in order to collect the most beautiful wild flowers or the 

 best berries of Northern California, but for several years he has 

 had no time to spare for this work. He has two collectors who 

 collect only for him, and many relatives who send valuable bulbs 

 and seeds, from time to time. One of his collectors travels in Chile, 

 the other in Australia, preferring the regions in which the climate 

 corresponds best with that of Santa Rosa. The Australian plants 

 are usually sent to him under their botanical names, the South 

 American often without any names at all, only the date and locality 

 of collection being indicated. This insufficiency of denomination 

 is of no importance at all for the practical work, but often dimin- 

 ishes the scientific value of the experiment, as for example, in the 

 case of the spineless cactus. The thornless species with which he 

 crossed the edible varieties have been sent to him from Mexico and 

 elsewhere without names and they have been eliminated from the 

 cultures as soon as the required crosses had been made. Hence it 

 is evident that a scientific pedigree of his no^' renowned spineless 



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