230 LUTHER BURBANK 



they were developed. One of these was a per- 

 son of little refinement, notwithstanding his love 

 of flowers; the other was a cultivated banker of 

 artistic temperament. The tastes and propensi- 

 ties of the two men made themselves felt in all 

 the flowers they produced; which of course was 

 inevitable, when we reflect that the plants were 

 produced by selection, and that each man 

 naturally selected the type that appealed to him. 



The incident is here mentioned not as some- 

 thing exceptional, but as typical. Almost as a 

 matter of course, one could draw correct infer- 

 ences as to the personality of a plant developer 

 from observation of the varieties that he has 

 developed — provided always, of course, that his 

 selections have been made along the line of his 

 own tastes, and not to meet some specific com- 

 mercial demand. 



There should be for the amateur an added 

 stimulus in the reflection that he is thus putting 

 the stamp of his own personality upon the plants 

 with which he experiments. The flowers of your 

 own garden may thus come to have an individu- 

 ality that represents you as fully as you are 

 represented by your costume or by the books you 

 gather on your shelves. And surely the possi- 

 bility of developing a flower garden that has 

 such individuality, differing from any and every 



