BREEDING FOR PERFUME 



"To keep track of the details of a plant's 

 life under change from an old order of things," 

 says Mr. Burbank, "and to bear in mind all 

 that must be remembered and considered as 

 to its life history, beside this, the classifica- 

 tion of the botanists is child's play." 



When the flower which has been changed 

 in form or color has been watched through a 

 series of years and shows no sign of return to 

 its old ways, then it may be left to itself 

 to follow out the new order of its changed life. 

 It certainly took a long while to make the 

 dahlia double, for example, but this is now a 

 fixed characteristic and there is no reversion 

 to the old order. 



It so happened one day, several years ago, 

 that Mr. Burbank, while in the dahlia proving- 

 plots, suddenly noticed one flower which bore 

 none of the disagreeable odor characteristic of 

 this plant, but, in its place, a faint fragrance, 

 elusive, but undeniably sweet. Instantly the 

 flower was isolated, and with the most jealous 

 care its seeds were saved and planted. 



A problem of immense difficulty was before 

 him, for of all the qualities of a plant the most 

 elusive, the least understandable, the most 



177 



