BREEDING FOR PERFUME 
flower has made the greatest demand upon the 
skill and the resources and the commanding 
genius of the friend of all flowers. 
But even this is granted: a new epoch in 
the life of the flowers of the earth has come: 
they need remain scentless no longer. 
For twenty-five years Mr. Burbank had 
been studying the dahlia before he found a 
way of answering its prayer for relief from its 
offensive odor; now it is to be freed from its 
burden. He has driven out the disagreeable 
odor and, in its place, he has left the fragrance 
of the magnolia. 
The dahlia is a fascinating flower with 
which to work. Year by year as he studied it 
and progressed in its development, making it 
more beautiful, hardier, more interesting in 
shape of blossom, he brought new varieties 
into service from other lands to make use of in 
combination with his own. One of these was 
originally from Mexico, Dahlia Juarezi, the 
parent of the dahlia now commonly called the 
cactus dahlia, with petals more on the order of 
the chrysanthemum. 
From the imported varieties he has worked 
on with the types of his own creation, all the 
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