LUTHER BURBANK 



In some cases I have selected for increase of 

 productivity, in others for increase of chemical 

 constituents, or for beauty of plume, or ability to 

 resist drought or frost or wind or moisture; or, 

 again, for compact growing or for ability to spread, 

 or for length and breadth of leaves, or for striping 

 of foliage. 



The grasses are so numerous and so diversified 

 that there is opportunity for almost indefinite 

 choice as to lines of development, and there are 

 few other groups of plants that offer greater 

 possibilities. 



To casual inspection, to be sure, most of the 

 grasses seem rather uniform, commonplace, or 

 unattractive. They lack the beautiful flowers that 

 so many other plants present, and their forms, if 

 almost universally graceful, are for the most part 

 lacking in picturesqueness. Add that the grasses 

 present great difficulties to the botanical student 

 because of the minuteness of their flowers and the 

 vast number of species more or less closely related, 

 and you may readily understand why this tribe of 

 plants is so commonly neglected by the amateur. 



But when we reflect that the family includes the 

 most important producers of food for man and 

 animals; and when we further reflect that there 

 are doubtless many species still undeveloped that 

 might be brought into the company of economic 



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