Practice of Plant Breeding 
disease-proof melons and wheats which withstand rust 
fungi.” 
Mr. Biffen has long been engaged in trying to produce 
a “strong” (in the baker’s sense) wheat which will also 
have the enormous yield of our ordinary English wheats. 
The barleys, wheats, and oats of Messrs. Garton are also 
apparently hybrids. 
But it is in crossing orchids that the most remark- 
able results have been obtained. 
These orchid-hybrids are sometimes entirely new and 
quite different from either parent. The flowers are not 
infrequently larger and show magnificent colours and 
strange combinations of characters. 
Hybrids are often more vigorous and luxuriant than 
their parents, but it is not always the case that the 
descendants of these hybrids inherit those characters. 
The various species of Odontoglossum and other orchids 
hybridise very freely and even in nature; without any 
assistance. This was well seen in the exquisite series 
of Odontoglossum hybrids shown by Mr. Rolfe at the 
Darwin-Wallace celebration of the Linnean Society in 
1908. Even those who hybridise most, almost invari- 
ably select carefully as well, and it is by a combination 
of both methods that the most striking results are 
obtained. 
It is necessary, of course, to speak of Luther Burbank, 
whose creations have been very freely described in 
books and gardening papers. He had the advantage of 
being born near Boston in America, but his father was 
English and his mother Scotch, which is also always an 
advantage. 
As a baby (he was born in 1849) he used to hold 
flowers in his cradle, and when able to walk preferred 
plants such as a “lobster cactus” to kittens and dogs 
for his pets. All through his life he continued to study 
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