LUTHER BURBANK 



answered instantly^ that there was one much 

 whiter than all the rest; and to my satisfaction 

 she indicated the one that all along had seemed 

 quite different from the others to my eye. There 

 was no question, then, that this plant bore flowers 

 nearer to purity in whiteness than any others of 

 all the thousands of daisies in my garden. 



Needless to say that particular plant was 

 selected for use in future experiments, for the 

 ideal I had in mind was a daisy that would be of 

 the purest imaginable white in color. How the 

 ideal was achieved — after fifteen years of effort — 

 will appear in due course. 



The daisies in question, of which the plant 

 bearing the nearly white flowers w^as the best 

 example, had been produced by several years of 

 experimentation which had commenced with the 

 cultivation of the common roadside w^eed familiar 

 to every one in the East as the ox-eye daisj^ 

 and known to the botanist as Chrysanthemum 

 leiicanthemum. This plant, which grows in such 

 profusion throughout the East as to be considered 

 a pest by the farmer, was not to be found in 

 California until these experiments were begun. 



I brought the plant chiefly as a souvenir of 

 boyhood days. But I soon conceived the idea 

 of bettering it, for it had certain qualities that 

 seemed to suggest undeveloped possibilities. 



[8] 



