THE SHASTA DAISY 



botanists of his generation. The two men were 

 in deep consideration of some of the most 

 profound processes of Nature, when de Vries 

 made some remark in which there was a sug- 

 gestion of the unreliability of Nature. 



"You are wrong! Dr. de Vries," Burbank 

 instantly replied with great earnestness, ignor- 

 ing for the moment all scientific topics in 

 order to come to the defense of his vast friend; 

 "you are all wrong; Nature never lies. We 

 may sometimes misunderstand her, we may 

 not always be able to speak her language or 

 properly translate her thoughts, but Nature 

 never lies." 



The great botanist sat some time in silence, 

 and then gravely nodded his head. 



There were many flowers upon the green 

 hills around his boyhood home that the lad 

 loved, violets and asters ; the royal goldenrod ; 

 that soft breath of the spring, the delicate anem- 

 one ; roses and lilies and the trailing arbutus in 

 their seasons; but there was one flower in 

 which he took a particular interest, possibly 

 because every man's hand was against it. This 

 was the little wild field daisy, to many a 

 farmer an unmitigated evil, a pest to be fought 



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