LUTHER BURBANK 



plant or vegetable oyster. It is a biennial plant 

 having long, slender, light-gray roots. 



There is only one greatly improved horticul- 

 tural variety. This is known as the Sandwich Is- 

 land Mammoth. It is fully twice as large as the 

 ordinary salsify, which it otherwise closely 

 resembles. 



I have worked with the Sandwich Island Mam- 

 moth with particular reference to improving the 

 smoothness and plumpness of its root. But it was 

 found to be one of the most stubbornly fixed of 

 plants. This is quite what might be expected of a 

 plant that has only one species under cultivation. 

 We have elsewhere seen that the plants that have 

 many species are the ones that tend to vary. 



There are, however, two or three wild mem- 

 bers of the tribe, one known as the Spanish salsify 

 and another as the black salsify, a native of Eu- 

 rope. It is possible that these might be used to 

 hybridize with the ordinary and the Sandwich Is- 

 land species, and that the element of variability 

 might thus be introduced. 



Possibly through selective breeding, based on 

 such hybridizations, new varieties of salsify might 

 be developed and the plant might thus conceivably 

 be made to occupy a much more important 

 position than it does at present among garden 

 vegetables. 



[72] 



