LUTHER BURBANK 



heritage of four ancestral strains from three 

 continents, thousands of seedlings were raised 

 each year for five or six ensuing seasons, the 

 best individuals being selected and the others 

 destroyed according to my custom, until at last 

 the really wonderful flower that has since become 

 known to all the world as the Shasta Daisy was 

 produced. 



So at last I had the pure white daisy of which 

 I had dreamed. 



Moreover I had a flower that excelled my 

 utmost expectations as to size, grace and abundant 

 blooming qualities; a blossom from four to 

 seven inches in diameter, with a greatly increased 

 number of ray flowers of crystal whiteness, and 

 with flower stem tall and devoid of unsightly 

 leaves; a plant at once graceful enough to please 

 the eye and hardy enough to thrive in any soil; 

 a plant moreover of such thrifty growth that 

 it reached its blooming time in its first season, 

 although none of its ancestors bloomed until the 

 second season; and of such quality of prolificness 

 that it continues to bloom almost throughout the 

 year in California, and for a long season even in 

 the colder climates. 



Conflicting Tendencies 



The Shasta Daisy, sprung thus magically — yet 

 not without years of coaxing — from this curiously 



'[16] 



