LUTHER BURBANK 



course, are those of the public at large the new 

 rhubarb has been declared to be "the most valu- 

 able vegetable production of the century." 



The merit of that characterization we need not 

 discuss; but no one who has seen the new Giant 

 Rhubarb is likely to dispute that it is a plant of 

 altogether exceptional interest. 



SOME ESCULENTS AND AN ANOMALOUS SOLANUM 



The rhubarb is one of the few plants in which 

 the edible portion, for which the vegetable is 

 prized, consists of the leaf stalks. 



There are a good many other vegetables, how- 

 ever, in which the stalk of the leaf, along with the 

 leaf itself, becomes a more or less valuable food 

 product. Such, for example, are the cabbage and 

 its allies, the lettuce, and some others that we have 

 already considered, as well as the spinach and the 

 celery. 



A familiar example of a plant whose stem fur- 

 nishes a valued food product if cut at an early 

 stage, before it puts out its leaf stalks, is the 

 asparagus. 



These plants have interest from the standpoint 

 of the experimenter and all present certain oppor- 

 tunities for improvement. I have grown them all, 

 and have done something in the way of selective 

 breeding with most of them, but these experiments 

 have been relatively insignificant as compared with 



[222] 



