CHAPTER VIII 



THE SHASTA DAISY 



PT^HE green hills rising behind the house 

 -*- where Luther Burbank was born were 

 ever an inviting place in his boyhood days. 

 He knew the haunts of the wild flowers and 

 the hour of their earliest appearing. From 

 the time the snows gave way to the spring 

 sun until they came again in the bleak No- 

 vember days, he was in constant intercourse 

 with the hills, learning the language of Nature 

 in the only school where it is taught without 

 an interpreter. Something in his own nature 

 brought him into instant contact and sym- 

 pathy with the great heart of the Nature 

 around him. A certain peculiar intimacy with 

 Nature grew up and produced, if one may so put 

 it, the most absolute frankness toward her and 

 trust in her. This was well illustrated one day 

 in his maturer years when a great scientist 

 called upon Mr. Burbank, Dr. Hugo de Vries, 

 of Amsterdam, certainly one of the leading 



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