LUTHER BURBANK 



bulbs are nearer the surface than those of the 

 plants which grow where the sun gets at them. 



On the other side of the same canyons the 

 bulbs grow deep in the soil, and the leaves and the 

 blossoms transform themselves to protect their 

 moisture from the sun. 



Which is all that the cactus did when the sea 



was turned into a desert. 



***** 



Along the Pacific coast from Oregon well down 

 into California, there grows a common wild flower 

 of the pipe wort family. 



Inland a little way, say ten or fifteen miles, the 

 stalk of this plant is smooth and with hardly the 

 suspicion of a hair. But along the shore, where 

 the northwest winds pick up all of the finer 

 particles from the beach and form a sand blast, 

 the plant has developed a stalk so covered with 

 hairs that it is as woolly, almost, as a sheep 

 perfectly protected against the sand-enemy. 



Which is all that the cactus did when the 

 antelopes came to destroy it. 



***** 



Let the cactus, battle-scarred and inured to 

 hardship, teach us our first great lesson in plant 

 improvement : 



That our plants are what they are because 

 of environment; that simply by observing their 



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