FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 



185 



Selection. Our cultivated flowers, like our agricultural plants, 

 have been produced from wild ones. They have been selected 

 for beauty as the vegetables have been chosen for use. In many 

 cases our flowers and crop plants are very closely related. The 

 hollyhock is near kin to the cotton. Its large, many-colored, double 

 flowers are the result of long-continued selection and reselection. 



Courtesy of Messrs. Burpee Sf Co. 



CRIMSON CALIFORNIA POPPIES 



The Crimson California Poppy. An instance will show you 

 how this is done. Mr. Luther Burbank, who has been mentioned 

 before, is a flower lover as well as a skillful breeder of useful plants. 

 One day he was looking at a field of California poppies, yellow in 

 the sunlight. His quick eye detected one blossom that had ' a 

 thread of crimson on the inside of one of the petals.' He saved 

 and planted the seed of the crimson-streaked poppy. It produced 



