224 LUTHER BURBANK 



The rose and the carnation naturally suggest 

 themselves, but they have been so much worked 

 on that they do not leave so much opportunity 

 for wide improvement as some less popular 

 flowers, though offering grand opportunities for 

 immediate but less unique results. 



The tulip is inviting, but calls for a good deal 

 of patience. 



Perhaps the four-o'clock would serve the pur- 

 pose as well as any other common flower. Also 

 the hyacinth, the Scilla, and the gladiolus are 

 peculiarly good flowers on which to work. There 

 are many beautiful varieties of all of these but 

 new sorts could readily be produced. Moreover, 

 they are grown from bulbs, so any new varieties 

 may easily be perpetuated a consideration that 

 is by no means without significance to the ama- 

 teur who wishes to obtain striking results with 

 the least expenditure of time. 



Details as to numerous other flowers, includ- 

 ing both very common ones and those that are 

 less usual, and varying from the simplest to the 

 most complex, will come to our attention as we 

 now take up in succession the records of my own 

 work during the past forty-five years in the de- 

 velopment of new races of flowers. 



