258 LUTHER BURBANK 



FLOWERS VERSUS MEN 



With the breeding of a giant race of men, we 

 are of course as little concerned as the successors 

 of the Prussian king who inaugurated the short- 

 lived experiment. 



There is no real demand for a race of human 

 giants. They would not fit into the scheme of 

 things. Houses and carriages and furniture are 

 not built for them. At best they would be but 

 curiosities, and the world produces quite enough 

 human curiosities by accidental breeding without 

 starting out systematically to secure them. 



But it is quite otherwise with plants. Here the 

 production of unusual variations that is to say, 

 plants that differ conspicuously from their fel- 

 lows of the same species is an object considered 

 quite worth while, because these plant varieties, 

 provided the anomaly they present has to do 

 with some inoffensive quality, give pleasure and 

 profit to plant lovers everywhere, and add to the 

 sum total of human happiness. 



Such a product as the giant amaryllis, for ex- 

 ample, excites universal admiration. 



The mammoth flowers are things of genuine 

 beauty, regardless of size; and if mere size does 

 not in itself accentuate the beauty, it at least does 

 not detract from it, and it brings to the beholder 



