LUTHER BURBANK 



botanist as Chrysanthemum nipponicum; and 

 presently I obtained the seed of this plant from 

 Japan. 



Aid from Japan 



This Japanese daisy was in most respects 

 inferior to the original American ox-eye with 

 which these experiments had started. It is a 

 rather coarse plant, with objectionable leafy stalk, 

 and a flower so small and inconspicuous that it 

 would attract little attention and would scarcely 

 be regarded by any one as a desirable acquisition 

 for the garden. But the flower had one quality 

 that appealed to me — ^it was pure white. 



Needless to say no time was lost, once my 

 Japanese plants were in bloom, in crossing the 

 best of my hybrid daisies with pollen from the 

 flowers of their Japanese cousin. 



The first results were not reassuring. But in a 

 subsequent season, among innumerable seedlings 

 from this union, one was found at last with 

 flowers as beautifully white as those of the Jap- 

 anese, and larger than the largest of those that the 

 hybrid plants had hitherto produced. Moreover 

 the plant on which this flower grew revealed the 

 gracefulness of the American plant, and in due 

 course was shown to have the hardy vigor of all 

 the species. 



From this remarkable plant, with its combined 



[14] 



