NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 
intangible, the most difficult to get under 
control, is that of odor. A thousand and one 
things interfere to make the problem more 
difficult. The color of the flowers, the shape 
of leaves and petals and stem, these are before 
the eyes and changes in them may be watched 
and recorded from generation to generation,— 
but the perfume, no instrument of man can 
measure or record it: it is the very soul of the 
flower. 
Nevertheless, the more difficult the problem 
the greater his zest for entering. upon it, the 
deeper his delight in the final solution. 
New plants raised from the seeds of this 
scented dahlia showed a variety of answers to 
the problem. Some had scarcely, if any, odor, 
and that not pleasant; some persisted in the 
full measure of the old disagreeable trait; a 
very few had some hint of the perfume of 
the rich magnolia blossom. All but the latter 
were at once put to death as unworthy to live 
in the test to follow. 
Again the seeds were planted and again the 
plants were rigidly selected; and so it went on 
through generations until, one day, there came 
forth a plant with the full, sweet fragrance of 
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