322 LUTHER BURBANK 



than that of course was impossible, but it may 

 well be doubted whether any one of the com- 

 pany would have produced fruit quite of the 

 same order had it been nurtured in the climate 

 and fed from the soil to which its ancestors had 

 been habituated. 



Rest and a change of climate could not give 

 new hereditary possibilities, but they could be 

 instrumental in bringing dormant possibilities 

 to full realization. 



How REST STIMULATES GROWTH 



Possibly this statement requires a further 

 word of explanation, for I think we have not 

 elsewhere emphasized though the subject has 

 been once or twice mentioned the value of rest 

 in enhancing the vitality of plants and in giving 

 them new capacity for growth. 



Of course nothing is more familiar and 

 therefore nothing seems more commonplace 

 than the annual dormancy of plant life in general 

 throughout the winter season in temperate zones. 



But until recently no one had particularly 

 associated such dormancy with the vigorous 

 growth of the reviving plants in the springtime. 



It was familiarly known that tropical plants 

 keep up their growth, even if somewhat inter- 

 mittently, throughout the year; and it was 



