NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



purpose of building up his ideal strain. No 

 matter how wild and defiant, no matter how 

 full of deadly thorns, if he saw in them some 

 characteristic likely to have a helpful influ- 

 ence, they were installed upon the proving 

 grounds. Quoting Mr. Burbank in this point : 

 "Many so-called thornless or partially thorn- 

 less opuntias were obtained, but not one 

 among the thousands received from all these 

 sources was absolutely free from thorns and 

 spicules; and, even worse, those which were 

 the most promising in these respects generally 

 bore the poorest fruit, were the most unpro- 

 ductive, provided less fodder, or were less 

 hardy than the wild thornless species and 

 varieties. The first work was to select the best 

 of these, and thus continue, hoping for im- 

 provement. One of the first and not unex- 

 pected facts of importance to be observed was 

 that, by crossing, the thorns were often in- 

 creased rather than diminished, but not so 

 with all. Some very few still came even more 

 thornless than their so-called thornless parents, 

 with greatly increased size and quality of 

 leaves (known by some as raquettes, or slabs), 

 and among them was a combination of the 



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