176 , THE PLANT WORLD. 



unconscious ironv. " If the pollinating' has been thorough, nature 

 mav safely be left to do the rest." It is hardly necessary to point 

 out that a flower treated in this way may be visited by insects 

 bringing pollen from many different sources, and that the pa- 

 rentage of the resulting seedlings must remain absolutely in doubt. 

 It is quite true that if these seedlings show the characters for 

 which Mr. Burbank is working, the results are satisfactory from 

 his standpoint ; but what of their scientific value ? What new 

 fact have they added to our knowledge of plant breeding? How 

 can the experiment be repeated? The fact that a new fruit has 

 been produced is of general interest : it might never be improved 

 or perpetuated if science did not discover hozc and z^'hy it origi- 

 nated. The public is inclined to sneer at this profound basis of 

 scientific reasoning ; it is interested only in the outcome, and ^Ir. 

 Harwood, with others of his ilk, caters to popular acclaim. The 

 present generation is interested in the bizarre, the strenuous, in 

 every phase of life ; it has little use for conservatism or sober 

 second thought in politics, finance or science. Consequently, 

 when ]\Ir. Harwood airily discusses both Mendel's law and de 

 Vries' theory as having been thoroughly disproved by Burbank, 

 he may experience the temporary satisfaction of aft'ording the 

 public something to talk about, but he will not enhance Burbank's 

 position among plant breeders, and he demonstrates, on the other 

 hand, his inability to preserve the proper balance between scien- 

 tific speculation and scientific truth. 



C. L. P. 



In the June number of this magazine, through an oversight of 

 the reviewer, the author of the Elementary Botany, published 

 by the University Publishing Companw Lincoln, Xeb., was not 

 mentioned, for which we owe him an apology. The author is 

 Professor Charles E. Bessey, of the University of Nebraska. 



