onson's interest in plants this property began when he first arrived here. he was looking for a planned filament that could be used in the light bulb, and that was bamboo. thelanted bamboo on property. it had several dozen varieties of bamboo on the property. he loves palm trees. we have about 100 varieties of palms on the property. he brought the royal palm to fort myers, and now it lines 10 miles of roadway here. the reason why this lab was so important is that it caused the u.s. government to come forward with what was called the patent, the u.s. patent law, which then said that if you invented something with plants and it was a process that was worthy of patenting, it was issued a patent. until that time, the patent process in this country had been for mechanical devices, for machinery, for things that moved and operated, and it wasn't until really the early 1900s that the era of plant science, george washington carver, that whole era of plant science emerged. for plantsprocess was very critical in america and internationally. american industry during th