THE AMARYLLIS AND THE POPPY 



violent protests against this act, the golden 

 poppy, was it not the adopted flower of the 

 state of gold? And here was this worker of 

 miracles changing it to crimson and robbing 

 the state of its most distinctive and character- 

 istic adornment! But Mr. Burbank met the 

 protest with a gentle smile, and the poppies 

 go on their gorgeous way embossing the Cali- 

 fornia hillsides, gold upon green in high relief, 

 like the ornaments of some mighty shield, 

 while the crimson poppy which has been so 

 gently stolen from their midst is returned to 

 the world again for the adornment of the 

 gardens of many lands. 



Many other striking varieties are developing 

 in the midst of all the crossings thus secured, 

 exhibiting all manner of combinations of crim- 

 son and gold. 



But Mr. Burbank does not attempt the 

 enlargement of a flower just for the sake of 

 making it bigger than some other flower, or 

 even that it may be called bigger than any of 

 its ancestors. Bigness, as such, has no cham- 

 pion in him. He makes a flower larger than 

 its ancestors when that flower has certain 

 characteristics which make increased size 



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