LUTHER BURBANK 



produce a new bulb every week, or fifty new bulbs 

 in a year. 



In point of prolific bearing, there was cor- 

 responding progress. Not only do the hybrid spe- 

 cies produce large stalks, but they produce four 

 or five stalks to a bulb, instead of the original 

 two or three, and sometimes as many as twelve 

 flowers to the stem (when they have remained in 

 the ground for a few seasons), instead of the 

 original four or five flowers in a cluster. The en- 

 hanced fecundity of the new forms is supple- 

 mented by their tendency to early bearing. They 

 will sometimes bloom the second year from seed, 

 and on the average they bloom in three or four 

 years; whereas the old forms sometimes required 

 six or eight years to come to maturity. Thus 

 Mr. Burbank has pretty nearly cut in half the 

 time from seed to blossom in the amaryllis. Hy- 

 bridization and selective breeding are of course 

 the magic methods that accomplish these results. 



But the most spectacular transformation has 

 to do with the flowers themselves. In the original 

 species, the largest flower seldom attained a diam- 

 eter of more than five or six inches. Mr. Bur- 

 bank's hybrid species of giant amaryllis produce 

 flowers that are almost a foot in diameter. 



These megaphone-like flowers of the giant 

 amaryllis are among the most striking, as well as 

 among the most beautiful, objects to be seen in 

 Mr. Burbank 's experiment gardens. 



It should be added that the giant amaryllis does 

 not produce its largest flowers until it has at- 



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