THE AMARYLLIS AND THE POPPY 
of 1904, called to America mainly by his in- 
tense desire to see Mr. Burbank and to learn 
in person something of his work, he was 
deeply interested in the amaryllis experiments. 
He wrote an exhaustive article for a Dutch 
magazine comprising many thousands of words 
descriptive of his visit to Mr. Burbank,—fur- 
ther mention of which is elsewhere made,— 
and the following appears in regard to the 
amaryllis: 
“ Another example (of hybrids) is the ama- 
ryllis, which with us is a hothouse plant, but 
which, in California’s beautiful climate, may 
be raised in the open. Thus it is made possible 
to bring to flowering tens of thousands of 
seedlings, while in Europe we can select only 
from a few hundreds. In such a ratio as this, 
the number of years necessary to bring about 
as great improvements is much less. It re- 
quired more than half a century to get the 
amaryllis with their large flowers neatly closed 
in with their numberless shades and stripes 
which we admire so much. Burbank, of 
course, is able to hasten the process. 
“Years ago, when the improvement of fruit 
trees almost exclusively drew his attention, he 
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