144 LUTHER BURBANK 



days we are accustomed to associate function 

 with structure everywhere in nature, seeking a 

 physical basis for the observed phenomena asso- 

 ciated with life processes, it is natural that here 

 as elsewhere attempts have been made to visual- 

 ize the conditions that obtain in the germ plasm 

 of the plant, and to picture in imagination its 

 actual mechanism. 



In our age the telescope, fortified by the 

 weirdly penetrative spectroscope and aided by the 

 most sensitive photographic plate, has enabled 

 the astronomer to reach out into unthinkable 

 realms and to record not merely the direc- 

 tion and speed of light, but even the chemical 

 composition of stars so distant that their light, 

 traveling 186,000 miles per second, requires ages 

 to reach the earth. 



With the aid of the same instrument, the uni- 

 verse is proved to be peopled with dark stars, 

 definitely revealed to us even though forever 

 invisible; the structure of the universe as a 

 whole is coming to be understood, and the 

 course and direction and speed of groups and 

 streams of stars by millions have been tested 

 and charted. 



In such an age it is not strange if the worker 

 who turns his eyes in the opposite direction, and 

 attempts to penetrate the mysteries of the micro- 



