14 LUTHER BURBANK 



true of the cultivated fruits and vegetables. As 

 regards a large proportion of these, the culti- 

 vated varieties have not only supplanted the 

 original species, but no definite record remains 

 of the original species themselves. The case of 

 the gladiolus differs, and gains added interest, 

 in that the original species were brought from 

 southern Africa to Europe only a little more 

 than a century ago. The development of the 

 new hybrid races under cultivation, and the elimi- 

 nation of the parent forms by their improved 

 descendants, has taken place in so comparatively 

 short a time that its chief steps are matter of 

 record, as we have seen. 



So the story of the gladiolus has elements of 

 educational interest for the plant developer that 

 are quite lacking in many of the cultivated plants 

 which attained relative perfection at an earlier 



period. 



Early Work at Santa Rosa 



There are a few species of gladiolus that are 

 native to Europe and Asia, but the ones that 

 were chiefly used by the early hybridizers came 

 from South Africa, as already related. 



Doubtless this fact was not without signifi- 

 cance in determining the results of the work of 

 the early cultivators. We have seen illustrated 

 more than once the effect of transplanting a 



