9 2 
THE GARDEN OF THE WORLD 
whose petals were so white they were almost 
dazzling. Mr. Burbank thought how wonder¬ 
ful it would be to have a daisy large and tall like 
the English one, strong and full of blossoms like 
the American, and a brilliant white like the 
Japanese. The shasta daisy has all these good 
qualities and this is how Mr. Burbank did it: 
He got the very best seeds he could find from 
the three different kinds of daisies and planted 
them. When they bloomed, he cross-pollin¬ 
ated them. That means that instead of allow¬ 
ing the pollen from one kind of flower, say the 
American, fall upon the pistils of the same kind, 
he took the pollen and with a small brush 
sprinkled it carefully on another kind, either the 
English or the Japanese. He saw to it that each 
flower received pollen from a different kind 
of daisy. He did not know which combination 
would be the best, so he tried a great many 
different ones. After the daisies had all been 
pollinated, he tied little bags over them to pro¬ 
tect them from any wandering bee with pollen 
on his legs that might come along and spoil the 
