286 LUTHER BURBANK 



selections to be told in connection with it, such 

 as we have heard in connection with sundry other 

 more recent discoveries. Indeed, the word dis- 

 covery may be applied with peculiar propriety 

 to the origination of the Burbank potato, because 

 it all came about through the chance finding of a 

 seed ball growing on the stem of a potato vine 

 among numerous other vines in an ordinary 

 garden. 



Of course the observant eye was there to note 

 the anomaly of a potato producing a ball of seeds 

 in defiance of the usual Early Rose potato tradi- 

 tions. Also there was the receptive and inquir- 

 ing mind of youth, to challenge the product and 

 raise the question of what would result if these 

 seeds were planted. These qualities, or some- 

 thing akin to them, must always be present 

 where new phenomena are under observation, 

 else no discovery would be made however 

 lavishly the materials for discovery are laid 

 before us. 



In many of my later discoveries, I have 

 brought the materials together and had a share 

 in combining them and in directing and guiding 

 the processes of nature through which new 

 plants were developed. In the case of the potato, 

 as just stated, all this work was done quite with- 

 out my cooperation. When I came upon the seed 



