154 LUTHER BURBANK 



In this view, then, the germ cell may well be 

 an organism as complex and of as definite a sys- 

 tem of architecture as the full grown tree into 

 which it will ultimately develop. 



The leaves of a tree even the leaves of a for- 

 est are a meager company compared with the 

 census of the atoms within the nucleus of a 

 single germ cell. 



AN AMAZING MICROCOSM 



Nor need we limit our view to the germ cell 

 that produces a single plant. Let us consider 

 for a moment the bud from which the branch 

 grew on which are produced, according to our 

 illustration, plums, the seeds of which may give 

 rise to some hundreds of different "varieties" of 

 fruit. 



Do the analyses of miscroscopist and physicist 

 make comprehensible the fact that the original 

 bud of the plum tree can contain potentialities 

 of so many different complex structures? 



Another glance at the figures of the physicist 

 will supply the answer that would have been be- 

 wildering were it not for what we have just seen 

 as to the complexity of the germ plasm. It ap- 

 pears that, according to the estimates of Profes- 

 sor Rutherford (based on accurate count of the 

 atoms given out as so-called alpha particles in 



