THE AMARYLLIS AND THE POPPY 
violent protests against this act,—the golden 
poppy, was it not the adopted flower of the 
state of gold? And here was this worker of 
miracles changing it to crimson and robbing 
the state of its most distinctive and character- 
istic adornment! But Mr. Burbank met the 
protest with a gentle smile, and the poppies 
go on their gorgeous way embossing the Cali- 
fornia hillsides, gold upon green in high relief, 
like the ornaments of some mighty shield, 
while the crimson poppy which has been so 
gently stolen from their midst is returned to 
the world again for the adornment of the 
gardens of many lands. 
Many other striking varieties are developing 
in the midst of all the crossings thus secured, 
exhibiting all manner of combinations of crim- 
son and gold. 
But Mr. Burbank does not attempt the 
enlargement of a flower just for the sake of 
making it bigger than some other flower, or 
even that it may be called bigger than any of 
its ancestors. Bigness, as such, has no cham- 
pion in him. He makes a flower larger than 
its ancestors when that flower has certain 
characteristics which make increased size 
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