NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



many ages as to leave no further cause for 

 even academic apprehension. 



It is of interest to note that, in the progress 

 of these and other experiments, Mr. Burbank 

 demonstrates the fallacy of another scientific 

 statement. It has long been held that, under 

 certain conditions, the progeny of a given 

 plant union would be affected in a demon- 

 strable way by one or the other of the parents, 

 the parental life fixing itself in certain positive 

 and indelible forms upon the child life. In 

 the midst of vast experiments where he has 

 had unrivaled opportunities for studying 

 every phase of plant life, Mr. Burbank has 

 again and again demonstrated that this power, 

 prepotency as it is called, simply depends 

 upon heredity and that there is no prepotency 

 of male or female as such. Other things being 

 equal, he says it may be set down as fixed 

 that there is absolutely no balance in favor of 

 either sex, as sex. Upon this point Mr. Bur- 

 bank says: 



"In grafting, every conceivable stage of 

 congeniality between stock and graft is found, 

 from actual poisoning to refusal to unite; unit- 

 ing and not growing; or growing for a short 



218 



