LUTHER BURBANK 
bulbs are nearer the surface than those of the 
plants which grow where the sun gets at them. 
On the other side of the same canyons the 
bulbs grow deep in the soil, and the leaves and the 
blossoms transform themselves to protect their 
moisture from the sun. 
Which is all that the cactus did when the sea 
was turned into a desert. 
* * * * * 
Along the Pacific coast from Oregon well down 
into California, there grows a common wild flower 
of the pipewort family. 
Inland a little way, say ten or fifteen miles, the 
stalk of this plant is smooth and with hardly the 
suspicion of a hair. But along the shore, where 
the northwest winds pick up all of the finer 
particles from the beach and form a sand blast, 
the plant has developed a stalk so covered with 
hairs that it is as woolly, almost, as a sheep— 
perfectly protected against the sand-enemy. 
Which is all that the cactus did when the 
antelopes came to destroy it. 
Let the cactus, battle-scarred and inured to 
hardship, teach us our first great lesson in plant 
improvement: 
That our plants are what they are because 
of environment; that simply by observing their 
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