LUTHER BUB BANK'S WO UK 



373 



Burbank's own words, touching these matters that scientific men are 

 particularly interested in, in Ids work: 



All scientists have found that preconceived notions, dogmas, and all per- 

 sonal prejudice must be set aside, listening patiently, quietly and reverently 

 to the lessons one bv one which mother nature has to teach, shedding light 

 on that which before was a mystery, so that all who will may see and know. 



Crossing gives the raiser of new plants the only means of uniting the best 

 qualities of each, but just as often the worst qualities of each are combined 

 and transmitted, so that to be of any value it must be followed by rigid and 

 persistent selection, and in crossing, as in budding and grafting, the affinities 

 can only be demonstrated by actual test. 



All wild plants of any species are under almost identical environments, 

 having their energies taxed to the utmost in the fierce struggle for existence. 

 Any great variation under such circumstances is not likely to occur, and is 

 much more likely to be stamped out at once by its struggling competitors, 

 unless the variation should be of special use in competition, in which case it 

 will survive, and all others may be supplanted by it. Thus we see how new 

 species are often produced by nature, but this is not her only mode. Crosses 

 and hybrids are very often found growing wild where two somewhat similar 

 species grow contiguous, and if the combination happens to be a useful one, 



Hybrid Opuntia, without Thorns or Bristles, with a parent from which these appen- 

 dages are to be removed by crossing and selection. 



