196 PLANT-BREEDING 



satisfied the highest initial expectations. Some large spec- 

 imens of spineless Opuntias may already be seen on his farm. 

 They are almost absolutely smooth, and Burbank delights 

 in softly rubbing his cheek along them, in order to give a 

 most striking proof of their complete harmlessness. He is 

 now propagating them, and numerous young plants may be 

 seen on his beds, which may some day become the starting 

 point for the desired new branch of desert agriculture. 



Some of the hybrids of the stoneless prunes I have 

 quoted as still being in the possession of small remnants of 

 the ancestral stone. So it is also with the spineless cacti. 

 Here and there a stray spine may be found on their stems, 

 but being allowed to search for them, I succeeded only in 

 securing a single one. If not absolutely absent, they are 

 at least, so very rare as to be practically innocuous. Of 

 course, years will be necessary to multiply the spineless cactus 

 so as to produce the enormous numbers required to replant 

 large parts of the present deserts. But while multiplication 

 may be slow in the beginning, after some years it will go on 

 so rapidly that the practical result may not be so far off as it 

 now seems to be. Burbank gladly indulges in the prospects 

 which may then be realized, and it seems hardly possible to 

 overestimate the greatness of the benefit he will have con- 

 ferred upon mankind. 



As another instance, the Shasta daisies may be cited. 

 On meadows, some large flowering kinds of daisies, or mar- 

 guerites, are often seen, covering the green carpet like a fine 

 white cloth. They are as bright as many good garden flowers, 

 but on account of their commonness as wild plants, they 

 require some improvement before being capable of attract- 

 ing attention on introduction. They belong to the genus 

 Chrysanthemum, which includes the Japanese marigold and 

 other ornamental species. Burbank has introduced into his 

 farm cultures a Japanese species closely related to the mar- 



