IMPROVING SMALL FRUITS 57 



number a thousand or more, there are avail- 

 able many billions of atoms to make up each 

 member. 



Let us then, finally, recall the teaching of the 

 modern biologist, who gives us reason to believe 

 that, just as each individual higher organism is 

 produced by the union of two complementary 

 elements, male and female, so there is union of 

 complementary elements within the intimate 

 structure of the ovule itself to form each new 

 character. That is to say, using the accepted 

 terminology, it is necessary in building up any 

 character that is to be made manifest in the 

 future adult organism, that there shall be a 

 blending of two hereditary factors, which we 

 may now think of as individual members of the 

 germ plasm colony or organism. 



For example, there are factors of thorniness 

 and factors of thornlessness in the germinal cell 

 of the blackberry. 



There are color factors for blackness and for 

 whiteness in the case of our other blackberry. 



It may be in any given case that the two 

 factors united both represent thorniness, in 

 which case the future plant will bear thorns. It 

 may be, on the other hand, that the two factors 

 both represent thornlessness, and in that case the 

 future plant will be thornless. 



