THE AMARYLLIS AND THE POPPY 



of 1904, called to America mainly by his in- 

 tense desire to see Mr. Burbank and to learn 

 in person something of his work, he was 

 deeply interested in the amaryllis experiments. 

 He wrote an exhaustive article for a Dutch 

 magazine comprising many thousands of words 

 descriptive of his visit to Mr. Burbank, — fur- 

 ther mention of which is elsewhere made, — 

 and the following appears in regard to the 

 amaryllis : 



"Another example (of hybrids) is the ama- 

 ryllis, which with us is a hothouse plant, but 

 which, in California's beautiful climate, may 

 be raised in the open. Thus it is made possible 

 to bring to flowering tens of thousands of 

 seedlings, while in Europe we can select only 

 from a few hundreds. In such a ratio as this, 

 the number of years necessary to bring about 

 as great improvements is much less. It re- 

 quired more than half a century to get the 

 amaryllis with their large flowers neatly closed 

 in with their numberless shades and stripes 

 which we admire so much. Burbank, of 

 course, is able to hasten the process. 



"Years ago, when the improvement of fruit 

 trees almost exclusively drew his attention, he 



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