THE WINTER RHUBARB 97 



perhaps aiding in the production of a perpetual 

 rhubarb. 



So the net result was that, merely through the 

 retention of old instinctive habits under the trans- 

 formed conditions imposed by migration to the 

 Northern Hemisphere, the winter-bearing rhu- 

 barb of New Zealand was transformed, by most 

 careful and persistent selection, into a summer 

 and winter-bearing plant in California. And 

 inasmuch as there are no sharp lines of demarca- 

 tion as to just when the pieplant begins and ends 

 bearing, the two seasons tended to merge, with 

 the practical result that some of these plants 

 became all-the-year bearers. 



THE POWER OF HABIT 



Possibly the use of the words habit and in- 

 stinct as applied to a plant requires a few words 

 of elucidation. 



We ordinarily take the habits of a given plant 

 so much as a matter of course that we are prone, 

 perhaps, to overlook their close correspondence 

 with the habits of birds and animals and other 

 animate creatures. Yet a moment's considera- 

 tion will make it clear that we may with full 

 propriety speak of the fixed or regular "habits" 

 of plants, and that there is no logical reason 

 why we should not speak of them as being 



Vol. 2 Bur. D 



