NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



Then came a consideration of the plan 

 books of Mr. Burbank, the most curiously 

 interesting documents perhaps ever kept by 

 a scientific man, a complete refutation in 

 themselves of the doubter; — the professor 

 had never heard of them. 



While these plan books were designed with 

 no thought of scientific record as such, and 

 are by no means such elaborate records as 

 would have been kept had completeness been 

 the aim, they are essentially and consistently 

 scientific. They are a signal refutation of 

 the contentions of a good many scientific men, 

 who, like the university professor, have been 

 unstinted in their praise of Mr. Burbank's 

 achievements, but who have been unable to 

 see their way clear to admit him to their 

 charmed circle. Truth to say, though, in 

 passing, they were all unaware that he, like 

 all really great men in science, dwelt apart, 

 beyond the walls of precedent and far across 

 the stagnant moat of mere scientific record. 



These plan books are a clear, adequate, 

 comprehensive record of the chief events in 

 the life history of every test of importance 

 Mr. Burbank has undertaken. They are not 



320 



