106 LUTHER BURBANK 



When these tendencies have been nicely bal- 

 anced by a long continuation of unchanging 

 environment, the offspring is likely to resemble 

 the parent. 



But when, through a change of environment, 

 or through crossing, that balance is disturbed, 

 no man can predict the outcome. 



So when such a seed is planted, no man can 

 be sure whether the twentieth-century tendencies 

 will predominate, or whether long-forgotten 

 tendencies may suddenly spring into prominence 

 and carry the plant back to a bygone age, in 

 some of its characters. 



"How can seeds store up the tendencies of 

 their ancestry?" some one has asked. 



"How can your mind store up the impressions 

 which it receives?" we reply. 



Hidden away in the convulsions of our own 

 brains, needing but the right conditions to call 

 them forth with vividness, there are hundreds of 

 thousands, perhaps millions of impressions which 

 have been registered there day by day. 



The first childhood's scare on learning of 

 the presence of burglars in the house may 

 make us supersensitive to night noises in middle 

 age. 



The indelible recollection of a mother's love 

 and tenderness may arise after forty years to 



