LUTHER BURBANK 



lanky and could hardly support themselves when 

 in bloom. Others were short and compact. The 

 range of variation was from dwarfed forms of 

 eight inches to giants of four feet or more. 



And that the variation was due to heredity and 

 not to any environmental conditions was shown 

 by the fact that the dwarfs and giants might stand 

 side by side in the same soil and subject to pre- 

 cisely the same conditions of moisture. 



There was not much demand at that time for 

 new varieties, so I ultimately sold the entire lot of 

 hybrid Japanese iris as a mixture, without names 

 or numbers, not taking the time to sort out and fix 

 different types by selective breeding. 



In addition to the Japanese form, I have raised 

 a great number of other species, including one in- 

 teresting form in which the seed pods turned out 

 in a curious way and exposed the orange or scar- 

 let seeds. This is a species known as Iris foetssis- 

 sima. I grew this anomalous form extensively to 

 produce a race that would have seed pods and 

 seeds that would have better form and open more 

 fully. 



It is not necessary to go into details as to the 

 score or more of other species that I have grown, 

 as they all reveal more or less similar tendencies 

 to variation, and suggest over and over the same 

 possibilities of development. 



[42] 



