LUTHER BURBANK 



The flower stems are thrown up in great abun- 

 dance on long, stiff, wiry stalks, and the graceful 

 upright or drooping flowers are of every color 

 except blue crimson, yellow, and white being the 

 characteristic colors. 



The variety of ixia known as the Wonder has 

 double flowers that are exceptionally handsome. 

 The group of ixias make so striking an appearance 

 that they compete with the giant amaryllis in my 

 gardens in May for first place in their appeal to 

 the average visitor. 



The two plants are utterly different, but each 

 in its way is most individual and striking; the ixia 

 being characterized by gracefulness and fragile 

 beauty, the other by its massiveness. The flowers 

 of the ixia are only about two inches in diameter; 

 those of the others eight to ten inches, yet the 

 massed effect of the ixia is so striking that it com- 

 petes in interest with the larger flower. 



I have worked in a more or less desultory way 

 on the ixia for the past dozen or fifteen years. The 

 varieties under cultivation are so mixed as to their 

 ancestry, and hence have so strong an inherent 

 tendency to variation that it is not necessary to 

 cross them. Even the double variety is probably 

 at least half a century old. My work of improve- 

 ment looks to the increase in size and brilliancy 

 of color of the flower; and, of course, here as 



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