132 LUTHER BURBANK 



Or the fennel flower (Nigella) of France, in 

 which the several pistils bend over and take 

 pollen from the stamens around them and 

 straighten up again. 



Or the flowers of the nettle (Urtica) in which 

 the stamens increase their height with a sudden 

 springlike action, showering the pollen up over 

 the receptive stigma. 



We should observe that wheat and most of the 

 similar other grains, as though discouraged by 

 centuries of collective cultivation, or failure to 

 secure individual selection, had settled down to 

 the steady task of reproducing their kind almost 

 exactly alike, depending on similar individual 

 environment for slight individuality, and insur- 

 ing reproduction for self-pollination, with rare 

 exceptions. 



We should see plants in all stages of their 

 attempts to keep their kind fully adapted to 

 their new and constantly changing environments ; 

 we should see a range of ingenuity so great that 

 no man, no matter how many of his days have 

 been devoted to the study of plants and their 

 ways, can ever become weary of its wonders. 



"I bought some extremely expensive seed corn 

 several years back," complained a Santa Rosa 

 farmer. "But, just as I expected, it ran down. 

 The first year's corn was fine, and so was the 



