NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



plot in an unguarded moment were not 

 specially valuable, but the ones which the 

 birds had selected were very rare and the 

 test was all but defeated. So was it with 

 a new generation of beautiful hybrid lark- 

 spurs upon which he had been working for 

 a number of years. The plants ' were in 

 beds which have wire screens to protect 

 them from the birds, but a workman had 

 thoughtlessly left the screen off and the 

 birds in a few moments wrought havoc with 

 the plants that were more than worth, as 

 Mr. Burbank put it, their weight in dia- 

 monds. 



There is a constant battle going on against 

 these foes of the plants. 



172 



