NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 
helps instead of the hindrances of the race. 
Sometimes he comes instantly to a conclusion, 
seeing immediately the bearing of things and 
setting out upon a certain course fortified at 
all points. Sometimes, as in the regeneration 
of the cactus, he is met with grave problems 
which demand profound study. 
When he turned to the cactus on which he 
was to spend more than ten years of study, it 
was, in the main, a stubborn, irreconcilable 
foe to the race; in order to make it a friend of 
man its whole nature must be changed; it 
must be re-created. To the average man it 
would seem a waste of time and energy to 
seek to improve a plant which for millions 
of years had been hostile to the race, which 
seemed to have absolutely nothing in common 
with civilization, which by its pariah-like 
nature seemed peculiarly fitted for a home 
upon the desert, its closest comrades the 
rattlesnake and the scorpion, its highest aim, 
apparently, to cause the death of some thirst- 
maddened animal driven to eat its juicy but 
deadly leaves. 
But, the more difficult the problem, the 
keener his desire to solve it. He knew that 
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