LUTHER BURBANK 



the case of Mendel's peas the chance that the 

 three successive qualities will be combined in the 

 same individual of the second-generation progeny 

 is only one in sixty-four. When four qualities 

 are under consideration, the chance that they will 

 be combined in any particular way is but one in 

 two hundred and fifty-six. And with the inclusion 

 of still other qualities, the geometrical ratio pro- 

 gresses in such startling fashion as to give us as- 

 surance that if we are attempting to combine ten 

 different qualities in any given combination, the 

 chance of doing so is about one in a million. 



Your first thought will be, perhaps, that you 

 are not likely to consider more than two or three 

 qualities as desirable in the case of any given 

 plant. But a moment's reflection will show that 

 here you are in error. Let us, for example, con- 

 sider the perfected varieties of gladioli that 

 have been developed in Mr. Burbank's experiment 

 gardens. We shall find that there is scarcely a 

 quality of bulb or stalk or flower that has not been 

 modified in one direction or another. 



The bulb has been made to produce bulblets 

 rapidly; they have been rendered hardy; and in 

 particular they have been made relatively immune 

 to disease. The stalks have been caused to grow 

 to gigantic size, to stand firmly erect, and to bear 

 flowers not merely on one side, as they were for- 

 merly wont to do, but in spirals that show the 

 flowers in a solid cluster, the blossoms facing in 

 all directions. The flowers themselves have been 

 very markedly increased in size, and given bril- 



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