76 



ROME AND FLOWERS 



come to see 3^011," 1 boldly ventured to 

 remark. ''Perhaps they do," he answered, 

 with the peculiar smile, and an utter 

 absence of egotism. At the door I no- 

 ticed what seemed to be some exquis- 

 ite designs in water-colors. '"No," he 

 laughingly answered in response to my 

 niTery. "Only some plates I cut from an 



A BLNCH OF THE BURBANK ROSES 



English floral magazine." I might have 

 known his creations lacked anything so 

 material as the brush. We passed rows 

 and rows of gladioli of which sometimes 

 a million seedlings are grown to obtain 

 the stock, thousands of the common field 

 daisy which now attains under the master- 

 hand a stem of three feet, a circumJerence 

 of twenty inches; here an Alaskan grape- 

 vine, there a creeper from the rocks of 

 Italy awaiting development in turn. What 

 years of seeding, selecting, grafting, prun- 

 ing, fruiting over and over again; What 

 patience! What intuition! 



The latter must have been active in our 

 behalf. Suddenly Mr. Burbank reached 

 for and handed to us a bunch of flax, flower 

 and seed, l^ot the pale, exquisite blue as 

 we know it — he had been dabbling in na- 

 ture's paint-box, for it was a rich, deep 

 crimson. 



Our souvenirs were added to little by 

 little, until we came to what was appar- 

 ently a bed of the very common verbena, 

 running wild, and this was the scene of 



my undoing. Its rank growth, hardy nature 

 and showy foliage make it a very desirable 

 garden plant. Thanks to Mr. Burbank's 

 generosity, I hesitated not. "May I have 

 a slip of this, please?" I asked, suiting 

 the action to the word. "Ah, but that is 

 my $800 verbena I have just contracted 

 for," said a voice over my head. I had 

 put my foot in it at last 

 — my hand almost. There 

 was an excavation near by. 

 I wished it were nearer 

 that I might sink out of 

 eight. However, the tact 

 and courtesy of Mr. Bur- 

 bank rose to the occasion, 

 while I rose to my feet. 

 He kindly plucked a blos- 

 som. It was an ordinary 

 looking thing to have en- 

 snared me so. Appearances 

 are so often deceitful. Hav- 

 ing recovered sufficiently to 

 move, he kindly suggested 

 that we take a look at the 

 greenhouses, although there was no green 

 thing there, only some growing seeds. 

 Away in the distance the "old mother'^ 

 was pointed out, a short, sturdy figure, 

 one of the Burpees of Philadelphia. 

 From her the son inherits his almost 

 divine faculty of subtle intuition. My 

 friend remarked that hereafter she would 



HE LOVES FLOWERS FOR THEMSELVES 



