208 LUTHER BURBANK 



gent, even plants of different species. But when 

 an individual plant presenting an approach to 

 the desired variation or modification has been 

 found among the hybrid progeny, the successive 

 steps of inbreeding and selection, through which 

 the character is accentuated and fixed, will be 

 carried out precisely as in the case of the little 

 Heuchera just cited. 



Indeed, had we been able to take up the story 

 of our little Heuchera a generation or two earlier, 

 we might have found that such a crossbreeding 

 experiment as has just been suggested had been 

 performed for us by nature. It is highly prob- 

 able that the original specimen with the tendency 

 to crinkle leaves that was found in the woods was 

 the product of a cross between plants, perhaps 

 of the same species, that were individually some- 

 what variant from one another. The plant grew 

 on a cliff where very dry, very moist, and very 

 unusual conditions of sun, shade, moisture, and 

 soil prevailed, thus having current in its heredity 

 a tendency to vary more or less, since heredity 

 is only the visible effect of near and far en- 

 vironments. 



Whatever the individual peculiarities of the 

 parents of this particular plant, the individual 

 that I found had leaves that were somewhat 

 highly accentuated in a certain direction, being 



