88 LUTHER BURBANK 



everybody. Her ever-blooming quality was one of the 

 leading elements needed in this new creation. Hermosa 

 is probably the best known of any one in the entire rose 

 world; but, as she rarely produced seeds, no one up to that 

 time had tried to improve her. 



The rose family is a very distinguished old family, and 

 also a very large one. We cannot tell you where the 

 first grandmother rose came from, but a great many of 

 the roses of to-day came from the Far East. So the first 

 rose may have lived in the Garden of Eden, though whether 

 she was a tiny little plant, a vine, a shrub, or a great big 

 tree, we do not know, or whether she grew thorns or not, 

 for it was so long ago. Some believe firmly that a cousin 

 of the rose, the apple, was a resident of that garden. 



We are told that to be an aristocrat in the plant world 

 is to be a descendant from a long line of plants that have 

 kept on improving; so the rose, it seems to us, must be an 

 aristocrat. This we know: the rose is the emblem of 

 beauty and delight and the rosebud a sign of innocence 

 and purity. The school was greatly honored by the com- 

 ing of the rose, and it is no wonder that a quiver of ex- 

 citement went through the garden when she entered. 



After Hermosa other roses came to assist. Among them 

 was Bon Silene, noted for the beautiful form of her buds 

 and for the profusion of her blossoms, Which were a deep 

 rose color shading to rich crimson. 



Hermosa, like all plants, wanted to grow and bear seeds; 



