BREEDING FOR PERFUME 



it, the most disgusted look on a bird's face 

 he ever saw, flew away. While it has long 

 been a mooted question with naturalists 

 as to whether or not the buzzards, vultures 

 and other birds of prey of their class, see, or 

 smell, the carrion which is their delight, the 

 view now held by many leading men is that 

 they depend wholly upon their sight, while 

 Mr. Burbank's experience with his outcast 

 lilies proved in this instance the opposite. 



To breed flowers for a certain quality, — 

 beauty, endurance, longevity, hardiness, — this 

 is immensely difficult. It is immeasurably 

 more difficult to breed them for the produc- 

 tion of perfume, their subtlest element. Now 

 that Mr. Burbank has demonstrated that 

 flowers may be bred for perfume, that odors 

 may be changed, that scentless flowers may 

 be given fragrance, much work remains for 

 others. It is incredible, the amount of work 

 he has accomplished. He has still larger 

 work before him than any he has ever 

 attempted, and, of necessity, very much that 

 he has under way must be carried forward, as 

 to details, by others. He is never more 

 gratified than when some one else can take 



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