302 LUTHER BURBANK 



We have seen that a tendency to variation 

 is everywhere introduced when different species 

 or varieties of plants are hybridized. And 

 although no conscious experiment in hybridiza- 

 tion was involved in the case of these potatoes 

 inasmuch as I had no knowledge of the seed ball 

 until it was in actual existence yet it is clear 

 that nature had performed the experiment, and 

 that I was enabled to take advantage of the re- 

 sults of her experimenting. 



To be sure it is more than likely that the seed 

 ball with which I worked was produced by 

 accidental fertilizing by pollen from a neighbor- 

 ing plant, as several varieties were growing side 

 by side at the time. 



The Early Rose was a seedling of the Early 

 Goodrich, a white potato named after its origi- 

 nator, a clergyman, who had been carrying on 

 experiments in crossing and raising seedlings. 



Every potato of a given variety, no matter 

 how far removed from the original specimen 

 of that variety in point of time, is of the same 

 generation with that original so long as all are 

 grown from the tuber. 



All this has been clearly explained again and 

 again in dealing with the propagation of other 

 plants from tubers or cuttings or grafts or by 

 root division. 



