Overview

Vol. X of a twelve Volume setLeft in the midst of his flowers, at the close of the last volume, Mr. Burbank in this, the tenth book, continues to unfold before us, more of his transformations. Beginning with the chapter on the means of securing the utmost variation in flowers, Burbank continues with the Iris, the Tigridia, the Everlasting or Millinery Flower, the Larkspur, and scores of other beautiful flowering plants, more familiar in the average dooryard. Having covered the range of his flower productions, Mr. Burbank proceeds, in this volume, to describe his improvements in ornamental palms and climbing vines, lawn plants and lawn beautification, concluding the book with a terse chapter on practical hints for the betterment of field and flower garden.Some of the chapters are: Four Common Dooryard Flowers-And Their Improvement, The Everlasting Flower- and Some Common Exotics, Lawns - Their Beautification and many more.Luther Burbank (1849-1926) was an American horticulturist, botanist, and pioneer plant breeder, who developed more than 200 new varieties of plants for which he was recognized by an Act of Congress, among many other honors. Burbank was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and was educated at local schools and at Lancaster Academy. His boyhood was spent on a farm, and at the age of 21 he purchased a plot of land near Lunenburg, Massachusetts, and began his lifework of plant breeding. In 1873 he developed the so-called Burbank potato, a large, hardy variety of potato considered much superior to the small, easily spoiled type then grown. In 1875 Burbank moved to Santa Rosa, California, and established a nursery garden and a greenhouse that were the site of his experiments for the next 50 years. There he developed the edible, thornless Opuntia cactus; several improved varieties of fruits and vegetables; several new strains of roses and many other ornamental and decorative flowers and plants; and a new fruit called the plumcot, which is a cross between the plum and the apricot. At the time of his death he had more than 3000 experiments under way and was growing more than 5000 distinct botanical species native to many parts of the world. His work stimulated worldwide interest in plant breeding. Burbank's primary concern was the development of new varieties of plants. His ability to perform experiments that produced plants with favorable characteristics depended more on his sense of intuition than on strict scientific methodology. However, Burbank was influenced by certain scientific theories, such as the formerly accepted theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics affirmed by Jean de Lamarck and others. Burbank's writings include Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries (12 vol., 1914-15) and How Plants Are Trained to Work for Man (8 vol., 1921). This set was prepared from the author's original field notes covering more than 100,000 experiments made during forty years devoted to plant improvement.

ISBN-13

9780898753103

ISBN-10

0898753104

List Price

$35.00

Format

Paperback

Pages

312 pages

Publisher

Univ Pr of the Pacific

Published On

2001-07-01



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