350 LUTHER BURBANK 



we must not forget that man differs from the 

 ether organisms in that he can take conscious 

 note of the conditions of his heritage and of his 

 environment and can be guided in a measure by 

 what he thus learns. 



This fundamental fact gives man a place 

 apart in the entire scheme of evolution. But it 

 does not remove mankind from the limitations 

 imposed by the laws of hereditary transmission. 

 He can consciously modify his environment and 

 he can be guided in his selections by his knowl- 

 edge of heredity; but he cannot free himself 

 from the thralldom of environmental influences 

 or from the inexorable limitations of his ancestral 

 heritage. 



In some respects, indeed, man is far more 

 hampered when he attempts to apply the laws 

 of heredity to his own race than he is in making 

 application of the same laws to the basis of tran- 

 sient animals under domestication. The necessi- 

 ties of the social organism that he has built up 

 place limitations on his freedom of selection in 

 the mating of individuals and even sharper 

 restrictions on his selections among the progeny 

 for the parents of future generations. 



Indeed, until very recently it has not been 

 thought fitting that man should give any con- 

 sideration whatever to the scientific breeding of 



