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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Heuchera Leaves made Crested by Selection of Varying Seedlings. 



the individual giving this perfume was carefully hunted out. No 

 farther selecting was done; this plant was the single ancestor of the 

 fragrant new race. 



And so one might go on for pages, but with slight variations in 

 detail all these pages would tell only the same story: the stimulating 

 or inducing of variability by environmental influences and by hybrid- 

 izations; the search after, and keen recognition of, promising special 

 variations ; the selection of the plants showing these variations ; rearing 

 new generations from them, repeated selection, and new hybridizations 

 to eliminate this characteristic or introduce that, and on until a de- 

 sirable combination is found. Then the careful fixing of this form 

 or type by repeated selection through several generations. 



But an end must be made of this. Let us, in a paragraph, simply 

 sum up the essential things in the scientific aspects of Burbank's work. 

 No new revelations to science of an overturning character; but the 

 revelation of the possibilities of accomplishment, based on general 

 principles already known, by an unusual man. No new laws of evolu- 

 tion, but new facts, new data, new canons for special cases. No new 

 principle or process to substitute for selection, but a new proof of the 

 possibilities of the effectiveness of the old principle. No new cate- 

 gories of variations, but an illuminating demonstration of the possibili- 

 ties of stimulating variability and of the reality of this general varia- 

 bility as the fundamental transforming factor. No new evidence either 

 to help the Darwinian factors to their death-lied, or to strengthen their 

 lease on life ; for the ' man ' factor in all the selecting phenomena in 

 Burbank's gardens excludes all ' natural ' factors. Here are some of 



