IN THE FLOWER GARDEN 



bled the wild parent form as to blossom and gen- 

 eral habit. But its leaves were so modified as to 

 constitute a new variety to which a specific name 

 has been given. 



Hundreds of other instances might be cited in 

 which Mr. Burbank has modified the quality of 

 stem or leaf or flower of a familiar or unfamiliar 

 plant by this process of selective breeding, in 

 which a " spontaneous " tendency to variation sup- 

 plied the material with which the experimenter 

 worked. It is rare indeed for a plant to come 

 under his observation in which he does not detect 

 some indication of what to his keen perception 

 seems a bid for improvement. 



If you will carefully examine any group of 

 flowers in your garden, you will at once see that 

 no two plants of the same variety are precisely 

 alike ; and if you wish to accentuate any observed 

 variation, you may undertake the task with full 

 confidence, if you will follow out the method just 

 outlined. In some cases progress will be rapid, 

 in others slow, but you are almost certain to see 

 some improvement among the progeny of the first 

 generation, and not unfrequently you may detect 

 a very marked transformation in size or form or 

 color, or in any other quality for which you are 

 selecting, in the course of two or three genera- 

 tions. 



The fact appears to be that every individual 

 plant is the center of many conflicting hereditary 

 currents. Selective breeding singles out a tend- 

 ency and gives it an opportunity to manifest its 



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