No Two LIVING THINGS 

 EXACTLY ALIKE 



INFINITE INGENUITY 

 THE PRICE OF VARIATION 



WHERE do the flowers get their colors?" 

 asked a visitor of Mr. Burbank one 

 day. 



"From the bees, and the butterflies, and the 

 birds," was the reply. "And from us. 



" 



Let us pick up a geranium, such as might be 

 found in any dooryard in America, and see what 

 Mr. Burbank meant. 



If we were to strip off its five brilliant petals 

 soon after they have opened, and slice the base of 

 the blossom in half, we should find ourselves 

 looking into a tiny nest of geranium eggs round, 

 white, moist, mushy eggs with a soft skinny 

 covering for shells. 



Carefully packed in a pulpy formation, these 

 eggs, we should observe, are incased in a well 

 protected nest, longer than its breadth, oval, except 



[VOLUME I CHAPTER III] 



