LUTHER BURBANK 
are rich in nutriment for man and for beast, here 
in the desert where the demand for food is the 
most acute—and the supply of it the most scanty. 
“And here they are, ruined for every useful 
purpose, by the bitterness which makes them 
inedible, or the poison which sickens or kills, or 
the spiny armor which places their store of nutri- 
ment and moisture beyond reach. 
“There must be some reason for that bitterness, 
that poison, those spines. 
“What other reason could there be than that 
these are Nature’s provisions for self defense? 
“Here are the sagebrush, with a bitterness as 
irritant, almost, as the sting of a bee, the euphorbia 
as poisonous as a snake, the cactus as well 
armored as a porcupine—and for the same reason 
that bees have stings, that snakes have fangs, 
that porcupines have arrow-like spines—for self 
protection from some stronger enemy which seeks 
to destroy.” 
Self preservation comes before self sacrifice, 
apparently, in plant life just as it does in human 
life. 
The plum trees in our orchards outdo each 
other in bearing fruit to please us; the geraniums 
in our dooryards compete to see which may give 
us the greatest delight. 
[10] 
