LUTHER BURBANK 



The plumes to be preserved in the best way 

 should not be allowed to come out of the sheath 

 before drying. The long stems, with several leaves 

 attached, are cut just as the tip of the plume 

 begins to show. The leaves are stripped off, and 

 the stalk is placed in the bright sunshine, prefer- 

 ably standing, but more commonly spread on 

 boards or on the ground. Prepared in this way, 

 the panicles do not shake to pieces. They assume 

 the aspect of silky plumes, which are given a 

 peculiar fluffiness and brought to perfection by 

 being placed in a hot oven for a few moments. 



I have raised perhaps a hundred thousand 

 seedlings of various pampas-grasses, and have 

 crossed them extensively. 



There is no difficulty in effecting cross-fertiliza- 

 tion, provided, of course, the two species bloom at 

 the same time. Pollen from the ripe male plant is 

 simply dusted over the pistillate flower. The 

 female plant is the one that is useful for ornament, 

 the male plant having a smaller and coarser 

 plume, which is never silky or fluffy, and which 

 readily falls to pieces under treatment. 



There are pampas-grasses, however, that have 

 both staminate and pistillate flowers in the same 

 blossom, and, of course, these cannot be cross- 

 fertilized with such facility. 



My most interesting experiments have had to 



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