NEW CREATIONS IN PEANT LIFE 
I N “New Creations in Plant Life” by W. S. 
Harwood, second edition, devoted to the 
achievements in plant life of Mr. Luther 
Burbank, on page 79, occurs the following statement; 
“Something of the remarkable character of the 
work which Mr. Burbank does is seen in his ability 
to take a single one of these new seed-capsules, divide 
it into four sections and by pollinating each section 
produce from one section an annual plant, from 
another a perennial, from the third quarter crimson 
poppies, and from the fourth, white ones.” Is this 
possible W. C. M. 
Mr. Burbank is undoubtedly the foremost worker 
in plant life of the century, and is entitled to the 
financial aid extended him by the trustees of the 
Carnegie Institution at Washington for his experi¬ 
mental work, and to the gold medal presented him 
by The San Francisco Academy of Science in 1903, 
“ For Meritorious Work in Developing New Forms of 
Plant Life.” Unfortunately for us of the North, 
the products of his skill and patience, so far, are in the 
main suitable only for cultivation under glass, or in a 
climate similar to that of the Pacific Coast. It is 
natural that where one has done as much m a crea¬ 
tive line, as he has, that unthinking writers have 
drawn upon their imagination and given him super¬ 
natural powers quite beyond man’s limitation. The 
statement that he can pollinate the seed capsule of 
a poppy, is a wild flight of fancy. The capsule is the 
case containing seed. Kellerman in his “Plant 
Analysis” states that “A capsule, or pod, is the 
general name for any dry pod which has spontaneous 
dehiscence.” A seed is the perfected consequence 
of the active powers of a plant in the reproduction of 
its species, which took place during the life of the 
flower. It is a matured ovule, and its character, as 
to what it will produce if germinated, is fixed and 
unchangeable. 
The active principle of life lies within the hard¬ 
ened case of the seed shell, which is further protected 
by tbe capsule, or outer casing. 
To pollinate is to convey pollen from the anthers 
to the stigma, and that can only be done during the 
life of the flower when the anthers and stigma are in 
existence. 
When they have performed their duty, they and 
the flower petals die and drop off, and the seed cap¬ 
sules are formed, and their contents beyond any 
change in character. 
Statements like the above detract from the actual 
great work Mr. Burbank is doing and his time is too 
valuable to attempt to correct them. Had Mr. 
Harwood said that Mr. Burbank could take these 
seed, sow them in four separate plots of ground, and 
by pollinization and selection, he could, in time, 
produce four distinct varieties, he would have come 
nearer the truth. 
STAKING PERENNIAL PLANTS 
I have never staked my perennial plants and often 
after heavy storms I And them sprawling on the 
ground. My interest in my garden is increasing and 
I want to improve its looks. Please give me some 
instructions as to what kind of stakes to get and any 
hints as to the proper methods of procedure. P. A.G. 
Your desire is commendable. When one grows 
plants like perennials, that occupy the ground a 
whole year, requiring a certain amount of care for 
two thirds of that time, mainly for the effect of a 
blooming period of two to three weeks, and then 
allow them, at that time, to lie sprawling on the 
ground, he pursues a foolish course. Some say, 
“I haven’t time to attend to all my plants.” It so, 
grow a less number, but care properly for those you 
do grow. Plants, like our native asters, for instance, 
do not need staking in their habitat, because their 
growth is somewhat stunted in comparison to that 
when in the borders in richer soils. In the 
latter case their growth is taller and the flower heads 
larger and heavier and they need some artificial 
support to hold them up. 
The best stakes to use, though comparatively 
expensive at the start, but less so in tbe end, are 
made of heavy telegraph wire, the shortest being 
thirty inches long ending at the top with a turned 
over loop, which not only forms an eye to run a 
string through but removes any danger of injury to a 
person bending over and coming in contact with a 
point. At a point eighteen inches from the bottom 
the wire stake is so manipulated as to form an eye 
or loop, being bent once over on itself—thus a fin¬ 
ished thirty inch stake has two loops for string, one 
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