REX'IEWS. . 175 



With respect to some of the chapters in his hook, we are forced 

 to the conchision that ^Ir. Harwood is indulging in pure romance, 

 to call it bv the most favorable term, and it is unfortunate that a 

 reputable publishing house should have allowed its imprint to be 

 placed upon a book which disseminates so much misinformation 

 as we find there. It is, moreover, damaging to ^Ir. Burbank's 

 reputation that he does not promptly disavow it. The harm 

 which is done to the cause of science by irresponsible newspaper 

 writers is immense ; for the public has neither the time nor incli- 

 nation to seek the proper authority, and knowing how many 

 remarkable discoveries have actually been made in recent years 

 it accepts these yarns, not for their face value, but as so much 

 scientific truth. As the statements are repeated by one person 

 to another they descend still further into the realms of fiction, so 

 that we can scarcely be surprised at the amount of existing mis- 

 information on recent scientific achievements. 



Mr. Harwood's reference to the annual grant of $10,000 given 

 to ]\Ir. Burbank by the Carnegie Institution naturally leads to a 

 discussion of Mr. Burbank's methods of work, which are, of course, 

 extolled in glowing terms by his biographer. The grant was 

 given with the specific purpose, not of enabling Burbank to secure 

 new results, but to discover and place on record, if possible, how 

 these results might be attained. In the light of the Mendelian 

 investigations and of de \ ries' extensive experiments with mu- 

 tating plants it was thought that Burbank's exceptional facilities 

 for work would yield results of immense importance. It is there- 

 fore a distinct disappointment to learn from this book that he 

 keeps no exact records of what he performs, but that in his h}-brid- 

 izing experiments he neglects the first and paramount essential 

 for success, — the taking of precautions to insure genuine cross 

 fertilization and to avojd contamination from foreign sources. 

 The pollen of the same species is almost invariably prepotent over 

 that of another species, no matter how closely related. Yet ac- 

 cording to his biographer, Burbank takes no pains to insure the 

 purity of a cross. " Mr. Burbank . . . says that it is wholly 

 unnecessary in ordinary plant-breeding to attempt to cover the 

 flower with a screen of tissue paper or gauze." He adds, with 



