NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



As the name of the mountain means white, 

 and as its summit is always covered with a 

 coronal of snow, he chose the name as pecu- 

 liarly fitting for such a flower. 



Now and again Mr. Burbank creates some 

 flower or plant which to him seems practically 

 perfect ; that is to say, it is so nearly up to his 

 ideal that he does not think it necessary 

 or profitable to give any further time to it. 

 Again, he leaves a flower in its class by itself, 

 perfected as far as his hands may make it, and 

 then fashions another from the material that 

 was left over. The new flower may have cer- 

 tain characteristics of the completed one, but 

 it will have others so very different it becomes 

 a practically individual creation. In the breed- 

 ing of the daisy some peculiarly interesting 

 and curious variations are developed. In cer- 

 tain plants these variations assume what are 

 called abnormalities, while in other cases they 

 are irregularities, — irregular but undeniably 

 beautiful. Certain of the hybrid daisies showed 

 a tendency to become double, their petals in 

 some cases also being strangely convoluted. 

 The doubling was somewhat in the manner of 

 the chrysanthemum. This tendency was en- 



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