LUTHER BURBANK 
The yuccas, the aloes, the euphorbias, all have 
counterparts in their families which, needing less 
protection, show less bitterness, less poison, fewer 
spines. 
And even rare cactus plants from protected 
localities, and those of the less edible varieties, 
give evidence, by the fewness of their spines, that 
their family struggle has been less intense than 
the struggle of the cactus which found itself 
stranded in the bed of a former inland sea. 
Plants which have shown even greater adaptive 
powers than the cactus are to be found in the well 
known algae family. 
One branch of this family furnishes an apt 
illustration of the scant nourishment to which a * 
plant may adapt itself. 
Microscopic in size, it lives its life on the upper 
crust of the Arctic snow storing up enough energy 
in the summer, when the sun’s rays liquefy a thin 
film of water on the icy surface, to sustain life in 
a dormant stage during the northern winter’s six 
months of night. 
With nothing but the moisture yielded from 
the snow, and what nutriment it can gather from 
the air, this plant, called the red snow plant, 
multiplies and prospers to the extent that it covers 
whole hillsides of snow like a blanket—covers 
[28] 
