LUTHER BURBANK 



But, on the other hand, our studies of flowers 

 have shown us that color is the least fixed char- 

 acteristic of the floral envelope, and, reasoning 

 from analogy, it would be rather surprising if 

 there were not races of daisies, more or less closely 

 related to the parents of the Shasta, that have 

 colored blossoms. 



In point of fact, the Paris daisy has one lemon 

 yellow variety; and there is a so-called daisy indig- 

 enous to South Africa, but for a good while culti- 

 vated in Europe, that has blossoms of a rather 

 brilliant orange. This so-called African daisy, 

 however, is not very closely related to the true 

 daisies. The reader will recall a chapter of the 

 first volume in which the story of this flower is 

 told. It will be recalled that there is a closely 

 allied species of daisy from the same region of 

 South Africa that differs from the orange one 

 chiefly in the fact that it is pure white. 



It will further be recalled that when these two 

 species, the orange and the white, have been hy- 

 bridized in Europe, the hybrid offspring shows an 

 astonishing diversity of color. 



Not only oranges and yellows of many shades, 

 but shades of purple and red also appear. It was 

 by selection among the red hybrids, as will be 

 recalled, that a so-called African daisy of a beau- 

 tiful and uniform pink color was developed. 



[152] 



