152 Outlook to Nature 



to look for and are willing to believe what 

 we see. 



At one time I planted roots of wild straw- 

 berries that were received from Oregon. I 

 gave them a warm and pleasant knoll in the 

 back yard and they grew and thrived. I had 

 photographed the plants before they were set, 

 and had taken botanical specimens from them. 

 I made similar records of the plants after they 

 became established in their new quarters, and 

 at the end of two years I found that the dis- 

 tinguishing ancestral marks had disappeared, 

 and I had a new type of plant. This discovery 

 so delighted me that I told my friend of it, and 

 said I believed that I had really produced a 

 new species. The friend, however, at once 

 became serious and said that such a remark is 

 heresy and that I should straightway look to 

 my conscience. This staggered me, for I had 

 not thought of it before as a question of ethics 

 or even of philosophy, but only as a ques- 

 tion of fact ; and I was astonished, as I now 

 thought of it, to find how sinful a simple fact 

 may be. 



