8? PASTIME FOR THE RICH 257 



New Plant" in Vol. II of the new Collier edition 

 of his collected writings. 



"I have been," he says on another page, 

 "imbued from the very outset with the idea that 

 inasmuch as existing plants have all evolved 

 from inferior types, it should be possible to 

 develop any or all of them still further." 



And here is a trumpet call which ought to 

 inspire and enthuse all those who may have a 

 desire to do a little plant improving on their 

 own account: "Who can predict the result 

 when the inventive genius of young Amer- 

 ica is turned toward this, the greatest of 

 all fields of invention, as it is now turned 

 toward mechanics and electricity?" 



THE ENEMIES OF GREAT MEN 



All the quotations in the foregoing pages 

 from Burbank's writings are made from the 

 third, or 1915, edition in twelve large volumes, 

 an edition de luxe in every way, but rather 

 "long-winded," as he himself calls it in a letter 

 to me. Few persons in our busy age have time 

 to read and assimilate so many pages on any 

 one topic. 



As I am writing this chapter, there comes to 

 me a set of the new Collier edition, in which the 

 twelve volumes are cleverly condensed to eight; 

 the material is also arranged in a more practical 

 way, and all information brought up to date. 

 The titles of the new volumes are: I, Plant 



