LUTHER BURBANK 



These were the product of cross-breeding ex- 

 periments performed for you by the wind. 



And had you chosen to do so you might have 

 carried the experiments further and been witness 

 of the application of some very fascinating prin- 

 ciples of heredity. Now that your attention is 

 called to it, you will do well to take the matter 

 into your own hands and forego the assistance of 

 the wind in the particular experiments in question. 



The pollen of the corn, as you doubtless know, 

 is borne in the tassel at the top of the stalk. The 

 pistillate flowers are borne on the stalk itself, and 

 their presence is indicated by the putting out of 

 the familiar wisps of so-called silk, each strand 

 of which is in reality a pistil that leads to the egg 

 cell, which, if fertilized, will become a kernel of 

 corn. 



Under ordinary conditions the pollen sifts 

 through the air and is dusted over the silky pistils, 

 its germinal nucleus making its way along the 

 substance of the tenuous pistil to the egg cell. If 

 there are different varieties of corn growing in 

 the same neighborhood, cross-fertilization is al- 

 most certain to occur. 



In the case of most kinds of plants, cross- 

 fertilization does not affect the appearance of the 

 immediate fruit, but shows its effect in the plants 

 that grow from the seed. 



But corn is anomalous in this regard, for the 

 kernel shows at once the influence of the foreign 

 pollen. 



If, for example, the pistils of the variety of 

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