182 LUTHER BURBANK 



The cactus, for example, which produced its 

 first spines with difficulty, later became more 

 and more spiny, even though the need for spines 

 had disappeared. Our flowers grow more beau- 

 tiful, our fruits more luscious as their tendencies 

 gain momentum. 



We may take it as a rule, almost, that a habit, 

 once fixed, hardens : that a trait, once established, 

 grows stronger and stronger. 



The easiest way, therefore, is to work with 

 heredity, and not against it to spend a month 

 searching out a desirable trait or habit, rather 

 than to spend a year or a decade trying to over- 

 come an undesirable one. 



And, now, to a practical experiment. 



From almost any seed house we may procure 

 the seeds of two African wild flowers. One is the 

 African orange daisy, the other a white daisy of 

 the same family. 



The orange daisy is a sun-loving flower, as its 

 beautiful, rich tint clearly testifies. 



The white daisy, by its whiteness, shows 

 equally unmistakable evidence of an ancestry 

 which has preferred the shade. 



Bright colored flowers are most invariably 

 those which have grown in the sun. White 

 flowers are more often those which bloom at 

 night. 



