THE SHASTA DAISY 



more out of the twelve; under specially fa- 

 vorable conditions, throughout the whole year. 



An extremely interesting feature of the 

 new flower is that it seems to have lost all 

 its bad habits. Where once it was, at the best, 

 a pest to be dreaded, multiplying with remark- 

 able rapidity and driving absolutely necessary 

 food products to the wall, it now keeps itself 

 apart from the weeds of its ancestry in a cer- 

 tain aristocratic exclusiveness. . It produces 

 but very little seed and that large in size. 

 Mr. Burbank has grown millions of the plants 

 in his tests, but a self-sown daisy has never 

 appeared upon his grounds. 



The flower itself is one of remarkable 

 beauty, a rare, well-nigh brilliant white of 

 great size, the center a pure yellow, with long, 

 graceful stems. It is not only highly decora- 

 tive in the mass, forming a magnificent note 

 in garden or lawn, but it lends itself with a 

 grace all its own to the bride at the altar or 

 for the last tender tribute to the dead. From 

 the first time he saw it, Mr. Burbank had 

 always held in deep veneration Mount Shasta, 

 a snow-capped peak of the high Sierras, one 

 of the conspicuous landmarks of California. 



143 



