LUTHER BURBANK 



are of course as little concerned as the successors 

 of the Prussian king who inaugurated the short- 

 lived experiment. 



There is no real demand for a race of human 

 giants. They would not fit into the scheme of 

 things. Houses and carriages and furniture are 

 not built for them. At best they would be but 

 curiosities, and the world produces quite enough 

 human curiosities by accidental breeding without 

 starting out systematically to secure them. 



But it is quite otherwise with plants. Here the 

 production of curiosities — that is to say, plants 

 that differ conspicuously from their fellows of the 

 same species — ^is an object considered quite worth 

 while, because these plant curiosities, provided 

 the anomaly they present has to do with some in- 

 offensive quality, give pleasure and profit to plant 

 lovers everywhere, and add to the sum total of 

 human happiness. 



Such a product as the giant amaryllis, for 

 example, excites universal admiration. 



The mammoth flower is a thing of genuine 

 beauty, regardless of size; and if mere size does 

 not in itself accentuate the beauty, it at least does 

 not detract from it, and it brings to the beholder 

 an added sense of wonderment that enhances the 

 satisfaction with which the flower is viewed, and 

 gives a pleasurable stimulus to the imagination. 



[78] 



