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Plants to their proper places
in the botanical classification
Having no Burbank nearer at
hand than Berryton, have been
fortunate in securing the best
products of European skill in
hybridization, though the medium
of my agents R.O. Taighe & Co.
of Boston, Mass., and of all my
acquisitions, the plants from
which I produce the seeds now
transmitted to you are by no
means the least satisfactory.
If properly planted, and
nurtured with the jealous care which
is characteristic of true
gardeners, as the Gentians
happily put it, they'll grow and
bloom for you, and the Californians
can then see what other folks
have in the line of flowers.
Some time when you are over
at Ukiah, look up Mr. Carl
Purdy, with whom you are perhaps
already well acquainted, as he is
a man of European as well as
American note, as a lover and
successful grower of California
plants, and if he can spare
them, send a few good old native
Iris seeds for me in exchange
for these I send. If this, however,
is not entirely convenient, send
me some seeds easier to come at,
and the exchange will be entirely
satisfactory.
The friends at Nottawa, already
referred to, have informed me
that your father, whom I take to
be an estimable old gentleman
with somewhat of a penchant
for horticultural experiments,
like another Burbank, desires
to test the capacity for acclima-
tization of some of the numerous
and beautiful varieties of the
hybrid European Irises, commonly
though incorrectly known as the
German Iris. I hope to say without
further hesitation that I am happy
in being the possessor of one of
the finest collections of this
worthy flower in our county, and
perhaps in our state, Kansas,
and that I should be pleased to
cooperate in such an undertaking.