BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
LEAFLETS 
THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
Series III Brooklyn, N. Y., October 13, 1915. Nos. 10 and 11 
THE CROSSING OF FLOWERS 
"Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies, 
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower— but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
1 should know what God and man is.” 
The desire to create something- unique, new, beautiful or won- 
derful out of something commonplace is an innate ambition of 
most people, though most of us are so engrossed in the fight for 
food and shelter that we rarely have the opportunity to realize 
such an ambition. 
Plant breeding is a field in which this ambition may be to 
some extent satisfied, without a great outlay of time or money. 
Moreover, it is a field in which the results of one’s efforts will be 
much appreciated, for the discoverer or creator of a new rose, a 
new dahlia or a new apple is giving just as much pleasure and 
doing just as much good as are writers of books or explorers of 
new countries. 
It does not take a Burbank nor a Lemoine to produce new 
flowers, fruits, and vegetables, but it does take patience, love of 
plants, a little knowledge of their life histories, and a small garden 
or greenhouse. Once in possession of these, almost anyone is in 
a position to become a breeder or discoverer of new fruits and 
flowers. Burbank, Lemoine, Bull, Laxton, Eckford, the orchid 
hybridists, and many others famous for what they have done 
along these lines, had nothing more at the start. To be the 
originator of the Concord grape — the blue grape so common on 
our market at this time of the year — is surely as worth while as to 
have been the discoverer of the North or South “Poles” or 
