NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



disagreeable, and make its odor a delight. 

 It is also possible to combine flowers of 

 different odors and produce others unknown 

 to the world before. 



But, in addition to all this, it is possible, 

 following in Mr. Burbank's lead, to breed 

 flowers with the requisite amount of vola- 

 tile oil, as it is called, the oil of the plant 

 which enables it to hold its rare sweet scent 

 and from which, when taken from the flower, 

 the perfume is obtained. There are several 

 processes for obtaining the perfume from 

 flowers, but their aim is identical, to iso- 

 late and confine the odor in some form of 

 fat or oil and then dilute it with alcohol into 

 the perfumes we buy at the chemists. 



Breeding corn, for example, so that it 

 shall have a certain prescribed amount of 

 fat has been accomplished and made prac- 

 ticable. Indeed, so completely successful is 

 this breeding that corns are prepared with 

 a given per cent of fat for animal or human 

 food, another per cent for the manufac- 

 turer of glucose who wants little fat in his 

 corn, another for the manufacturer of corn- 

 oil who wants much fat and little starch. 



186 



