NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



across on a stem six and one-half feet high. 

 Per contra, a perfect calla was made not more 

 than an inch and a half in diameter and per- 

 fect in every detail. 



Another calla was bred having handsome 

 golden variegated leaves, in interesting contrast 

 with the leaves which formerly had borne 

 white spots. Before this great work, the 

 common garden calla had had no odor, or, at 

 best, only a faint and rather disagreeable one. 

 As Mr. Burbank was examining a series of calla 

 seedlings, he detected one which bore a fra- 

 grance with the hint of violets and the sugges- 

 tion, too, of the water-lily. This calla was 

 isolated and bred for its perfume. Rigid 

 selection and exclusion followed, and little by 

 little the perfume was increased and intensi- 

 fied until at last it was fixed, a rare and 

 delightful attribute. The new flower also grew 

 in marked profusion, and blossomed earlier 

 than the calla from which it has been bred, 

 the most constant and abundant of all callas. 

 Mr. Burbank says : 



"Twenty-six years ago I began to cross our 

 native Pacific Coast lilies, adding from time 

 to time all the exotic species and varieties 



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