LUTHER BURBANK 



It is possible that by hybridizing this plant with 

 the wild variety improvement would be made in 

 the unique quality for which its leaves are prized. 



From the present standpoint, of course, our in- 

 terest in the salvias concerns their flowers. I have 

 done a great deal of work with various members 

 of the family, both in the way of selection and of 

 hybridization. The plant is tremendously vari- 

 able, even within the same species, and the various 

 forms run more or less together so that it is diffi- 

 cult differentiating them botanically. But the con- 

 trast between the species bearing blue flowers and 

 the familiar garden plant with its scarlet blossoms 

 is striking enough to challenge the attention even 

 of the least observant. 



The fact that the various species can readily be 

 hybridized, while at the same time they show such 

 variation as to color of blossom, gives them obvi- 

 ous interest from the standpoint of the amateur 

 plant experimenter. It should be noted, also, that 

 there are some salvias with white leaves, one of 

 these having foliage so thoroughly covered with a 

 white thick wool-like growth that the leaves make 

 excellent pen wipers. The experimenter who 

 works with one of these varieties could doubtless 

 develop interesting modifications of leaf through 

 selection alone, and, of course, hybridizing meth- 

 ods could be utilized to accentuate the variation. 



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