August, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



107 



An Amarylis One-Quarter Natural Size 



ing resulted in light and dark yellow flowers. Subsequent 

 crossings yielded flowers as deep in color as the original. 

 It has taken years to develop these qualities in its new envi- 

 ronments, but there is no reason why the yellow should not 

 be cultivated in tempera- 

 t u r e s where the common 

 white now flourishes. 



To the residents of New 

 and Old Mexico, Arizona, 

 Texas and Central America 

 the qualities, amiable and 

 otherwise, which pre-emi- 

 nently distinguish the prickly 

 pear need not be enlarged 

 upon. In the hot-houses of 

 the North small specimens of 

 the plant are cherished as 

 conclusive exhibitions of the 

 eccentricities of nature. In 

 its home this cactus grows 



to the dimensions of trees and is used as fences to protect 

 the domicile against the irruptions of any animal, wild or 

 domestic. Its sharp thorns are impregnable to assault. Di- 

 vested of its spines the prickly pear as a food plant has a 

 value equaling one-half that of alfalfa. It propagates 

 itself with little moisture. Cattle eat it with avidity, but 

 the spines, introduced into the intestines, cause death. 

 A more conclusive test of the practical value of the 

 theories of Mr. Burbank, then, in an endeavor to divest the 

 prickly pear of its thorns, could not be imagined. This he 

 undertook to do, and succeeded. 



In certain parts of Central America there grows a species 

 of prickly pear which has no spines or spikes, the only thorn 

 with which the plant is endowed being the spicules found 

 within the leaves. A plant of this variety was set out in the 

 experimental grounds and crossed or hybridized with five 

 Northern species, producing a type in which the spines were 

 almost eliminated. Continued crossings produced in the 

 fifth or sixth generations which was completely thornless. 

 Succeeding efforts resulted in a cactus in which every evi- 

 dence of even a spicule had vanished. The new plant is 

 hardy and vigorous growth. One plant in the grounds is 

 three years old and stands eight feet high, covering a space 

 perhaps five feet square. Upon it there are one hundred 

 and seventy leaves, and the whole plant weighs nine hundred 



pounds. The fruit is of delicious flavor, somewhat like the 

 pineapple, only more delicate. The deserts of the South may 

 be clothed in the spineless cactus at no late day. Its value 

 would be incalculable. 



The magnificent crimson poppy, which bears a flower 

 fully eighteen inches in circumference, is a product of hybrid- 

 izing the opium with the Oriental. The first generation 

 produced a flower having a narrow crimson streak. In this 

 all the pistils excepting those which were crimson were cut 

 off or amputated. These seeds were, in due time, planted, 

 and a flower nearly solid crimson bloomed from the stem. 

 Successive efforts eliminated every other color but the one 

 desired. It is the glory of the field; a whole garden in itself. 

 It took three or four years and many generations to create, 

 but the great crimson poppy is now a permanent addition 

 to the ornaments of the garden. As showing the results of 

 continued crossings, in a bed containing hundreds of thou- 

 sands of leaves there could be seen no two which were alike. 

 The California poppy, Eschscholtzia, naturally rich, deep 

 yellow in color, by following up a rare specimen in which 

 only a vein of crimson appeared, has developed a new type 

 which is all crimson. 



The fragrant verbena is a product of selection and cross- 

 ing. One plant was discovered in which a trait of ancestry 

 revived and exhibited itself in one specimen, which was dis- 

 covered by the plant breeder and its fragrance revived. 



The amarylis has been bred into a new plant, colossal 

 in size and gorgeous in color. Its size has been increased 

 to four times greater than the original, and measures 



from eight to ten inches 

 across. 



A wild white blackberry 

 crossed with the Lawton pro- 

 duces a much clearer white, 

 and is infinitely more pro- 

 ductive than the Lawton and 

 of finer flavor. 



The common daisy of the 

 North has, by hybridizing 

 and selection, developed into 

 a flower four and five 

 times as large as the original 

 and many times more 

 beautiful. The variations 

 of the new plant are endless. 

 The latest wonder to be established at the experimental 

 farm are two new types of the black walnut tree, and named 

 the Paradox and Royal. The first is a crossing of the com- 

 mon English walnut with the California, the latter between 

 the Eastern and the California. In front of the Burbank 

 home there are trees of the Paradox, not yet fourteen years 



A Thornless Cactus Not Yet Deprived of its Spicules 









• 





imL 









jPI^^HjjjjM 



9j^ ^i 



r%™ 





V 



"m. M 







^s w\ 



s %J 



'*/£% 





mjMTJ^I^i 





'' W 



W<r^ ™ 



m^W^MM 





Extreme Form of Blackberry Leaves Produced by 

 Hybridization of Two Distinct Species 



