It would be impossible here to go into detail in regard to some of the other wonders accomplished in the plant world by this modern magician. There is only space to merely mention a few more of his successful achievements. He has given the improved thornless and spiculess cactus, food for man and beast, converting it into a beautifier and reclaimer of desert wastes; the plum-cot which is an amalgamation of the plum and the apricot with a flavor superior to both; many kinds of plums, some without pits, others having the taste of Bartlett pears, and still others giving out a fragrance as sweet as the rose; several varieties of walnuts, one with a shell as thin as paper and which was so easily broken by the birds that Burbank had to reverse his experiment somewhat in order to get a thicker shell; another walnut has no tannin in the meat, which is the cause of the disagreeable flavor of the ordinary fruit; the world-famed Shasta daisy, which is a combination of the Japanese daisy, the English daisy and the common field daisy, and which has a blossom seven inches in diameter; a dahlia deprived of its unpleasant odor and the scent of the magnolia blossom substituted; a gladiolus which blooms around the entire stem like a hyacinth instead of the old way on one side only; many kinds of lilies with chalices and petals different from the ordinary, and exhaling perfumes as varied as those of Oriental gardens; a poppy of such dimension that it is from ten to twelve inches across its brilliant bloom; an amaryllis bred up from a couple of inches to over a foot in diameter; several kinds of fruit trees which withstand frost in bud and in flower; a chestnut tree which bears nuts in eighteen months from the time of seed-planting; a white blackberry (paradoxical as it may appear), a rare and beautiful fruit and as palatable as it is beautiful; the primusberry, a union of the raspberry and the blackberry; another wonderful and delicious berry produced from the California dewberry and the Cuthbert-raspberry; pieplants four feet in diameter, bearing every day in the year; prunes, three, four, and five times as large as the ordinary and enriched in flavor; blackberries without their prickly thorns and hundreds of other combinations and crosses of fruits and flowers too numerous to mention. He has improved plums, pears, apples, apricots, quinces, peaches, cherries, grapes, in short, all kinds of fruit which grow in our latitude and many even that have been introduced. He has developed hundreds of varieties of flowers, improving them in color, hardiness and yield. Thus he has not only added to the food and manufacturing products of the world, but he has enriched the aesthetic side in his beautiful flower creations. CHAPTER VIII LATEST DISCOVERIES IN ARCHAEOLOGY Prehistoric Time--Earliest Records--Discoveries in Bible Lands-- American Explorations.