Botanist. He received world-wide recognition starting in the second half of the 19th century for his study of plants, becoming an expert in gardening, and as a pioneer in agricultural science. Having only the formal education of attending a local academy, his plant-breeding knowledge was acquired from "trial and error" or "on-the-job-training." He did study "The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication," by Charles Darwin and Johann Mendel's theory of cross breeding. In his nearly 55-year career, he experimented with plants, introducing more that 800 new varieties of plants including over two hundred varieties of grains, vegetables, fruits and nuts plus hundreds of beautiful flowers. He and his experiments with plants have been compared to Henry Ford and his assembly line for producing automobiles or Thomas Edison and his invention of the light bulb. As a twenty-one-year-old, he purchased a 17-acre piece of land near Lunenburg, Massachusetts to grow vegetables as an income to support his widowed mother. During a two-year period, he developed the "Russet Burbank" potato, which is known today as the Idaho potato with a crop worth $1.5 billion annually. He sold the rights to the potato for $150 and in 1875 moved to Santa Rosa, California starting his career with plants. He purchased land and developed a successful nursery. Not interested in the nursery business, he sold the business in 1893 and started an experimental farm in nearby Sebastopol. By grafting native plant seedlings with foreign, he produced hybrid plants with positive results. He developed 113 varieties of plums, which twenty are grown commercially in California and South Africa. He developed the July Elbert Peach and the nectarine, which is not a cross between a plum and a peach. In the category of flowers, he produced the Burbank Rose, the Shasta Daisy and fifty varieties of lilies, which include the Fragrance, Splendor, and Dwarf Snowflake callas lilies to name a few. The loss of lives from the lack of food was at the heart of Burbank's experiments. Between 1907 to 1925, he developed over sixty varieties of nearly spineless cacti, which could be eaten by humans as well as being used for livestock feed, especially during droughts. This was not the most successful project. He had very little business sense and often did not make a penny when any of his products were sold. To protect the results of his plant-breeding, he helped to lobby the United States Congress for the 1930 Plant Patent Act. He received his 16 patents after his death. He also did not document his research as a trained scientist would. The Carnegie Institution promoted his scientific study of plant with an annual $10,000 grant from 1904 to 1909; it was stopped when it was determined his experiments were not considered scientific but an art. He was the author of "The Training of the Human Plant" in 1907; between 1914 to 1915, the 12-volume collection of "Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries and Their Practical Application;" in 1921 the 8-volume collection of "How Plants are Trained to Work for Man;" and a series of informative catalogs published between 1893 to 1901, "New Creations in Fruits and Flowers." His autobiography was written in 1927 as "Harvest of the Years." The Luther Burbank Home and Gardens, which is located on a 1.6-acre site in Santa Rosa and opened daily to the public, is a National Registered site along with being a state and city historical landmark. Dying from a heart attack, he is buried on the grounds of the gardens in an unmarked grave site. In the years after his death, his property, except the house and gardens, was sold. The State of California celebrates Arbor Day on March 7th, which is Burbank's birthday, thus trees are planted in his memory yearly. The Luther Burbank Rosa Parade is held in Santa Rosa annually in May. In 1940 the United States Postage Service issued a stamp in his honor, and even though some sources do not consider him an academic research scientist, he is one of five scientist receiving the honor of a stamp. Burbank was elected posthumously to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in 1976 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1986. He married twice and had no children. He supported the public education system in California and many schools were name in honor of him. The city of Burbank, California was not named for him. He simply believed that human ingenuity could improve nature's productivity and he accomplished that.