CERTAIN GENERAL FEATURES 



Mr. Burbank was attracted by a wild ever- 

 lasting flower which produces a rather inferior 

 blossom in its Australian home, but which 

 promised to develop into something far more 

 attractive. Following the usual course of 

 selection, he chose from among its plants those 

 bearing the choicest blossoms, saved the seeds 

 from these plants, and thus by constantly 

 choosing those plants that approached the 

 model in his mind, carried the flower forward 

 through successive generations to a larger and 

 far more beautiful state. The color of the 

 blossoms, a delicate pink, was intensified and 

 the blossom itself doubled in size. 



There are numerous "everlasting" flowers, 

 more or less attractive to the eye, and to add 

 a new flower to their list would not have been 

 so extraordinary a thing, but the development 

 of the Australian flower had a wholly distinc- 

 tive purpose, the production of a flower for 

 use in the manufacture of millinery goods and 

 for use in allied decorative lines. Thus the 

 new flower becomes commercially important, 

 promising very largely to displace artificial 

 flowers of wire, paint and cloth for the adorn- 

 ment of women's hats. The flower is not only 



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