ON FACT VS. THEORY 
From the botanists of only a century ago, 
examining only dead tomato blossoms from the 
tropics, and dried tomato fruits the size of hickory 
nuts—how could we expect an inkling, even, of 
what the tomato with less than half a century of 
cultivation could become? 
How short, indeed, the time which environment 
requires to transform a plant beyond recognition 
—especially when man, either consciously or un- 
consciously, becomes a part of that environment! 
And, knowing what the Chinese did to the pear, 
what the American Indian did to corn, what our 
own fathers and mothers did to the tomato, can 
we not see that, while stamen counting has its 
place, yet, for real achievements in plant improve- 
ment, we must look for help not so much to the 
stamen counters as to the plants themselves as new 
environment brings their old heredities into view. 
Mr. Burbank has made combinations between 
species; he has made combinations between 
genera, not once, but many times; fertile, seed- 
bearing combinations. 
How far, then, can plant combination be 
carried? Is it possible to go above the genus and 
make combinations between families? Or to go 
above the family and make combinations between 
the orders? Or to go above the orders and make 
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