NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



was as inconsolable in his grief over the loss 

 of the pet plant as another child would have 

 been over the death of a bird or a faithful 

 dog. 



Strangely enough, a half century later, in 

 the prime of his manhood, he has given years 

 of his life to the study of other forms of this 

 pet of his childhood days, creating a series 

 of thornless, edible cacti, not only providing 

 a vast reservoir of food for man and for un- 

 counted millions of the beasts of the field, 

 but paving the way for the reclamation of the 

 desert places of the earth. That which was 

 once a dangerous foe of man and beast be- 

 comes, through him, a stanch friend; it is a 

 noble boon to the race. 



Year by year, as he grew into boyhood, his 

 love for all the beautiful things in the world 

 around him steadily deepened. As soon as he 

 was old enough to be placed in school, he at 

 once attracted the attention of his teachers by 

 his love for study. The love for his school and 

 the love for the flowers and the trees and the 

 birds were always manifest. And in the ripe 

 days of his prime one may see him turn with 

 boyish eagerness from the discussion of some 



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