INTRODUCTION 



his work being the subject of detailed and elab- 

 orate discussion. 



The illustrations of the series of volumes issued 

 by the Luther Burbank Society bearing title 

 "Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries 

 and Their Practical Application " constitute 

 probably the most remarkable set of color pic- 

 tures ever published in connection with any 

 single work dealing with plant life. They are 

 1260 in number, reproduced in the main from 

 direct color photographs made on Lumiere plates ; 

 and they show every aspect of Mr. Burbank 's 

 work, and typical specimens of his achievements 

 in plant development. 



We are permitted to reproduce eight of these 

 pictures in the present volume, through courtesy 

 of the Luther Burbank Society. A glance at these 

 will give the reader some intimation of the 

 sumptuousness of the almost endlessly varied 

 mass of color illustrations from which these are 

 excerpted. 



The black-and-white illustrations of the present 

 volume are partly from other photographs be- 

 longing to the Luther Burbank Society, and partly 

 from original photographs by the author, who has 

 perhaps put Mr. Burbank 's unfailing good humor 

 to severer test by his persistent use of the camera 

 at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol than it was ever 

 otherwise similarly tested. For the famous ex- 

 perimenter is a very modest man, and the sight 

 of a camera fills him with trepidation. Fortu- 

 nately, however, he is as accommodating as he is 



[xi] 



