THE AMARYLLIS AND THE POPPY 



weak ones up to the strong and large growths 

 the endless marvel of selection, the eye wan- 

 ders, meeting a novelty at every foot until, 

 at last, it rests upon a plot of ground perhaps 

 fifty feet square wherein are growing two 

 thousand of the most marvelous plants that 

 ever were seen since the world began. This 

 plot or bed of ground contains the new hybrid 

 poppies upon which Mr. Burbank has been 

 working for many years. The chief crosses 

 have been between the oriental poppy, Pa- 

 pave?^ orientale, a perennial, and the opium 

 poppy, Papaver somniferum, a short-lived 

 annual. Out of these crosses came the bed of 

 poppies, no two of the whole two thousand 

 alike. In the foliage especially, and also in the 

 blossoms to a lesser extent, nearly every order 

 of plants known appears. The leaves are a 

 source of intense interest as a study for a 

 botanist or plant -breeder, presenting remark- 

 able combinations of old forms with pro- 

 duction of entirely new ones. 



The object of making this great crossing 

 was far more than reached — the results were 

 richer than could have been expected. Sci- 

 entifically interesting in a marked degree as 



77 



