110 LUTHER BURBANK 



This one trait is fixed, though some of the other 

 qualities of the plant are still variable. 



Using the new terminology we may say that 

 the tendency to winter-bearing is a unit character 

 that is latent or recessive, and that the winter 

 rhubarb has no factors of the opposite trait of 

 limited bearing and therefore cannot revert so 

 long as it is inbred. When crossed with the 

 spring-bearing race, however, the offspring some- 

 times revert to the old habit, as might be 

 expected. 



As already noted, nothing so far has been 

 gained by such crossing. Nor is there any neces- 

 sity for the growth even of pure-bred seedlings. 

 Propagation by root division answers every pur- 

 pose and, thus multiplied, the new crimson 

 winter rhubarb, in its perfected varieties, con- 

 stitutes a fixed race and is a permanent acquisi- 

 sition to the list of garden vegetables. 



It required only clear-eyed selec- 

 tion and patient watching the en- 

 couragement of tendencies in the 

 right direction and the suppres- 

 sion of tendencies in the wrong 

 direction to produce the result. 



