NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



intangible, the most difficult to get under 

 control, is that of odor. A thousand and one 

 things interfere to make the problem more 

 difficult. The color of the flowers, the shape 

 of leaves and petals and stem, these are before 

 the eyes and changes in them may be watched 

 and recorded from generation to generation, — 

 but the perfume, no instrument of man can 

 measure or record it : it is the very soul of the 

 flower. 



Nevertheless, the more difficult the problem 

 the greater his zest for entering upon it, the 

 deeper his delight in the final solution. 



New plants raised from the seeds of this 

 scented dahlia showed a variety of answers to 

 the problem. Some had scarcely, if any, odor, 

 and that not pleasant; some persisted in the 

 full measure of the old disagreeable trait; a 

 very few had some hint of the perfume of 

 the rich magnolia blossom. All but the latter 

 were at once put to death as unworthy to live 

 in the test to follow. 



Again the seeds were planted and again the 

 plants were rigidly selected ; and so it went on 

 through generations until, one day, there came 

 forth a plant with the fuU, sweet fragrance of 



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