AND HIS PLANT SCHOOL 55 



scarcely one. He would show it friendship, and give it 

 a chance in the world to be something. 



It was like taking a little neglected orphan child, who 

 had never been rocked in a fond mother's arms, or kissed 

 to make it well. He would teach it new ways of which it 

 had never known. He would give it love and make it a 

 queen among its kind this little waif. 



So Luther Burbank took his little childhood friend, the 

 moon-penny daisy, from its home within sound of the 

 Atlantic's roar, and placed it in his plant school on the 

 Pacific coast, among his rare and most choice flowers. 

 Though his every hour was crowded with work, he made 

 time to plan a glorious future for it, and his interest in it 

 held throughout the years of patient attention he gave to 

 its education. 



In England there grew a daisy similar, but somewhat 

 larger in size, whose coarseness excluded it from the royal 

 flowers. And over in Japan still another, quite small, 

 but dazzling in pure whiteness. Neither of these, however, 

 was as hardy as their American cousin nor as productive 

 of bloom. But in the three Burbank saw an outcome 

 most wonderful. 



The three little daisy cousins were brought together in 

 the plant school, and their education began. The American 

 daisy furnished a strong constitution; the English daisy gave 

 size; while the Japanese daisy contributed purity. These, 

 when united, would give strength, beauty, and importance. 



