THE AMARYLLIS AND THE POPPY 
weak ones up to the strong and large growths 
the endless marvel of selection, the eye wan- 
ders, meeting a novelty at every foot until, 
at last, it rests upon a plot of ground perhaps 
fifty feet square wherein are growing two 
thousand of the most marvelous plants that 
ever were seen since the world began. This 
plot or bed of ground contains the new hybrid 
poppies upon which Mr. Burbank has been 
working for many years. The chief crosses 
have been between the oriental poppy, Pa- 
paver orientale, a perennial, and the opium 
poppy, Papaver somnifcrum, a short-lived 
annual. Out of these crosses came the bed of 
poppies, no two of the whole two thousand 
alike. In the foliage especially, and also in the 
blossoms to a lesser extent, nearly every order 
of plants known appears. The leaves are a 
source of intense interest as a study for a 
botanist or plant-breeder, presenting remark- 
able combinations of old forms with pro- 
duction of entirely new ones. 
The object of making this great crossing 
was far more than reached—the results were 
richer than could have been expected. Sci- 
entifically interesting in a marked degree as 
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