314 LUTHER BURBANK 



second season, and then not as abundantly as 

 these do the first. But the seedlings will form 

 a motley company, many of them reverting to 

 ancestral forms and departing widely from the 

 characteristics that have made the fame of Shasta 



daisy. 



COULD THE SHASTA BE FIXED? 



The question is one that is not without practi- 

 cal interest. For there is obvious convenience in 

 being able to grow an ornamental plant from the 

 seed, even though it be possible to propagate it 

 indefinitely by division. A small package of 

 seeds may be shipped far more readily than roots 

 or entire plants, and no doubt a large number of 

 people will grow a plant from the seed who will 

 not take the trouble to transplant roots or work 

 from cuttings. 



So the question as to the possibility of fixing 

 the Shasta is not without some practical impor- 

 tance. But the question also has a theoretical 

 interest in connection with the general problems 

 of the plant developer as applied not merely to 

 this species but to many others. 



Our studies of many forms of plant life have 

 taught us that the cultivated varieties of flowers, 

 fruits, and vegetables are so complex as to their 

 heredities that except in the case of certain 

 annuals they do not breed true from the seed, 



