LUTHER BURBANK, THE MAN 



through his life, — the one broadening, the other 

 deepening his nature. 



From the earliest childhood he was passion- 

 ately devoted to flowers and to all forms of 

 plant life. Very many incidents are related 

 illustrative of this. His mother and sisters 

 had noticed that whenever he was given a 

 flower, while lying in his cradle, he always held 

 it with a certain childish tenderness, never 

 crushing nor dropping it but keeping it, if 

 allowed, until its bloom was faded or its fra- 

 grance gone. One day when his sister had 

 given him a flower he held it in his tiny fin- 

 gers with his usual earnestness until a petal 

 fell off. Then, with infinite childish patience, 

 he strove to put the petal back in place and 

 thus restore the flower. When a little older 

 and able to walk, he often chose plants for 

 pets instead of animals. He was given a plant 

 in a pot, a so-called lobster cactus as the 

 variety of cactus was locally known, and for 

 hours at a time he trudged about house and 

 yard carrying the cactus plant in his little 

 arms. One day he stumbled and fell, broke 

 the plant from its stem and destroyed the 

 pot. It was a day of great sadness, for he 



