LUTHER BURBANK 



the bulbs did not thrive, and it was two or three 

 years before any one of them bloomed. I learned 

 through experience that the bulbs do not require 

 too moist soil. They thrive in soil that contains a 

 great mass of leaves, and under proper conditions 

 they put out numerous branching stalks, about 

 four feet in height, which for months together are 

 covered with beautiful snow-white flowers, which 

 have, as already stated, the size and much the 

 general appearance of small gladioli. 



The conditions of soil under which the Wat- 

 sonia thrives are similar to those required by the 

 gladiolus. 



As soon as the colony of white Watsonias was 

 fairly established, I began making crossing experi- 

 ments, using for the cross the reddish pink species 

 and including, a few years later, also a pink variety 

 of the W. Ardernei that was sent out by a Dutch 

 florist. As usual in these experiments, I hybridized 

 with one species after another until in the course 

 of a few seasons we had crossbred forms of 

 multiple ancestry. 



There were strains of the white Watsonia in 

 them all, but also strains of the reddish and pink 

 species. 



By 1904 I had a crossbred colony of Watsonias 

 numbering about fifty thousand seedlings. This 

 doubled in the succeeding season, and in recent 



[274] 



