LUTHER BURBANK 



As a tangible illustration, hybrids in the first 

 generation may show an enhanced capacity for 

 growth, and the later generation hybrids may be 

 graded from groups of dwarfs at one end of the 

 scale to giants at the other. A corresponding 

 gradation may be shown in regard to other quali- 

 ties, such as color of flower, character of leaf, 

 flavor of fruit, productivity, resistance to disease — 

 in a word as to all the varied properties that go to 

 make up the personality — ^if the expression be 

 permitted — of a plant. 



Many of these things are so well recognized to- 

 day that they seem mere matters of fact, quite 

 beyond challenge. But they were matters of very 

 ardent challenge in the day when they were first 

 being demonstrated in the experiment gardens at 

 Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. 



When the first official announcements of this 

 work were sent forth, through publication of the 

 brochure called New Creations in Fruits and Flow- 

 ers in June, 1893, the measure of the novelty of 

 the announcements may be gauged by the popular 

 interest aroused on one hand and by the outspoken 

 incredulity of the botanical and horticultural 

 worlds in general, save only the individual ex- 

 perts who had previously visited my grounds and 

 seen for themselves the truth of the matters that 

 were now given publicity. 



[136] 



