LUTHER BURBANK 



Where did the geranium get its color? 



"From the bees," said Mr. Burbank. 



Just as the cactus covered itself with spines 

 until it had built up an effective armor, in the same 

 way the geranium, by easy stages, has worked out 

 a color scheme to attract the bees upon which it 

 depends to effect its reproduction. 

 ***** 



In Mr. Burbank's yard there grows, as this is 

 written, a Chinese arum whose color and whose 

 scent reveal a different historj'. 



Unlike most common flowers which advertise 

 to bees and birds and butterflies, this plant sends 

 its message to the flies. 



Flies feed on carrion. The nectar of clover is 

 not to their liking and the brilliant colors of our 

 garden flowers fail to attract them. Our refuse 

 is their food, and they are guided to it by colors 

 and scents which are offensive to us. 



So this Chinese carrion lily, as it has been 

 named — stranded at some time in its history, 

 perhaps, in some place where flies were its only 

 available messengers of reproduction, or blooming 

 at a period when other means were not within 

 its reach — has bedecked its spathe with a rich 

 and mottled purple — in color and in texture 

 resembling, from a distance, the color and 

 texture of a decaying piece of liver. 



[80] 



