NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



note of color where it would fall under the 

 eye of the man who has scrutinized her as 

 others have never done. Instantly he isolated 

 the plant, transplanted it, watched it with 

 jealous care. Its seeds were saved and planted. 

 Some of the flowers which came upon the 

 plants from these seeds showed a similar line 

 of red slightly widened. Again the crop of 

 seeds from these new plants, now much more 

 numerous, was planted, and a far larger har- 

 vest of blossoms was produced. Some of them 

 were true to their ancestral forms of life and 

 nodded their pure yellow heads in saucy 

 defiance. They paid sadly for their temerity, 

 for all of them were rejected. Others had 

 still more pronounced hints of the crimson, 

 and these were selected for further plant- 

 ing. So on and on the test went for years, 

 each successive generation showing stronger 

 tendencies toward the end desired, as the 

 petals grew more and more crimson. At last 

 the end was reached, the yellow poppy haa 

 become a deep lustrous red; it was hard by 

 the land of miracles. 



From certain quarters, — so curious the 

 inconsistency of man, — came up more or less 



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