'^ PASTIME FOR THE RICH 261 



made good with his cactus," or that "he created 

 a spineless cactus which already existed." 



Now it is true that there were in existence 

 generations ago small species of cactus that 

 were spineless. "One of the first pets of my 

 childhood," Burbank himself relates, "was a 

 thomless cactus, a beautiful little plant of the 

 genus Epiphyllum. There are also members of 

 the Cereus family that are thomless, showing 

 not a trace of spine or any part of the plant or 

 fruit. 



"But the cactus plants that are thus unpro- 

 vided with spines were without any exception 

 small and inconspicuous species, and also with 

 a bitter principle so disagreeable that cattle 

 generally refused to eat them. So the plants 

 offered no possibilities of direct development 

 through selection that could promise the produc- 

 tion of varieties that would have value as forage 

 plants." 



The problem which this dauntless plant 

 breeder undertook to solve was to hybridize 

 these spineless but also useless varieties of cactus 

 with some of the large varieties, particularly 

 the opuntias, which have peculiarly attractive 

 qualities of size and succulence. And he suc- 

 ceeded in achieving this miracle. In due time 

 such a new race was developed in his California 

 gardens, after thousands of painstaking experi- 

 ments with varieties of cactus from all parts of 

 the world, sent to him by his friend David G. 



