LUTHER BURBANK 



blossoms than the original Shasta, with longer 

 and stronger stems and more vigorous and hardy 

 growth. The Westralia has blossoms of even 

 greater size, and exceptionally long, strong and 

 graceful stems, and the California has a slightly 

 smaller flower but produced in great profusion; 

 and its blossoms instead of being snowy white like 

 those of the other races, are bright lemon yellow 

 on first opening. 



Moreover the enhanced vitality due to cross- 

 breeding and the mingling of different ancestral 

 strains, was evidenced presently in a tendency to 

 the production not merely of larger blossoms, but 

 of blossoms having an increased number of ray 

 flowers. 



The daisy is a composite flower, and the petal- 

 like leaves that give it chief beauty are not really 

 petals but are technically spoken of as rays. The 

 flowers proper, individually small and inconspic- 

 uous, are grouped at the center of the circling rays. 



In all the original species the ray flowers consti- 

 tute a single row. But the hybrids began almost 

 from the first to show an increased number of 

 longer and wider ray flowers, some of which over- 

 lapped their neighbors. 



By sowing seed from flowers showing this tend- 

 ency, I developed after a few generations a strain 

 of plants in which the blossoms were characterized 



[36] 



