THE WHITE BLACKBERRY 351 



contain only the factor of whiteness; hence that 

 all the progeny of that individual would breed 

 true and produce white berries. 



Such is indeed the observed fact with my de- 

 veloped strains of white blackberries. Grown 

 from the seeds, these breed far truer to their 

 parentage than is the case with most cultivated 

 fruits. As to certain other qualities they may 

 vary, but all are white. 



The Mendelian explanation obviously cannot 

 add any force to this observed and long ago 

 recorded fact. 



But it does serve to explain the observed fixity 

 and permanency of the new and anomalous 

 breed. It enables us in a sense to understand 

 the paradoxical fact that a berry having a whole 

 galaxy of black ancestors may have no strain of 

 blackness, no tendency to reversion to the black 

 type, in its composition. 



But we must not put the cart before the horse 

 by supposing that the new explanation adds any- 

 thing to the force of the previously observed 

 facts. Hypotheses are for the interpretation of 

 observed phenomena, not phenomena for the 

 interpretation of hypotheses. 



One other word in this connection. To would- 

 be plant experimenters who ask my opinion of 

 matters connected with the old versus the new 



