NEW VARIETIES 123 



his landlord for the removal of his seedlings. Even if the bulbs 

 cannot be touched when the family leaves, they may be safely 

 left till the proper time for transplanting. And the idea of wait- 

 ing fifteen years for a new variety is a bogie that has no terrors 

 for an experienced gardener. You do not hold your breath all 

 that time. A thousand seedlings will generally occupy only one 

 bed, or a single corner. The rest of the garden is hardly devoid of 

 interest all those years. 



I dare say some of my readers will be intensely disappointed 

 when I say there is nothing miraculous in the whole process. 

 Mr. Wilks tells us that there was no hybridization involved in the 

 production of the Shirley poppies only selection. He merely 

 found one poppy that had a white edge, sowed all the seeds of that 

 plant and, out of two hundred plants, got four or five that had 

 edged flowers. He saved the seeds of these and kept on, sowing 

 and saving, until all the colours came of their own accord. That 

 is the way nine tenths of all the progress has been made with 

 grains, fruits, and vegetables. Nature produces the good things 

 and we merely save them. If you should call Mr. Wilks a "wiz- 

 ard" he would have a right to be deeply offended, for no man likes 

 to have people think him a charlatan. 



But even the act of hybridization is shockingly simple. 

 You take a little pollen from one species of flower and put it on 

 the stigma of another flower of a different species. If you are very 

 lucky you will get some good seeds. The rest is the same story 

 over again pollinating, seed sowing, throwing away the worthless 

 and saving the best. To suppose that Mr. Burbank, or any other 

 plant breeder, has secret methods or superhuman skill is childish. 

 The only reason people think so is that Mr. Burbank has been 

 exploited by newspaper writers and indiscreet friends who know 



