THE SHASTA DAISY 309 



a mingling of different ancestral strains as had 

 been brought about. 



There was every reason to expect, while 

 hybridizing the American and European ox- 

 eyes, that a plant would ultimately be produced 

 that would combine in various degrees all the 

 qualities of each parent form. By selecting for 

 preservation only those that combined the de- 

 sirable qualities and destroying those that re- 

 vealed the undesirable ones, a fixed, persistent 

 hybrid race that very obviously excelled either 

 one of its parent forms was produced. 



Nor is there, perhaps, anything very mystify- 

 ing about this result, for the simpler facts of the 

 hereditary transmission of ancestral traits are 

 now matters of common knowledge and of every- 

 day observation. 



No one is surprised for example, to see a child 

 that resembles one parent as to stature, let us 

 say, and the other as to color of hair and eyes. 



So a hybrid daisy combining in full measure 

 the best qualities of the European and the Amer- 

 ican oxeyes, as did my first hybrid race, perhaps 

 does not seem an anomalous product, although 

 certainly not without interest, in view of the 

 fact that its parent stocks are regarded by many 

 botanists as constituting at least two distinct 

 species. 



