LUTHER BURBANK 



tangibly demonstrates the clearness with which 

 the " wizard of Santa Kosa" had grasped this 

 fundamental principle of inheritance. 



I mention the matter here because it has some- 

 times been assumed that Mr. Burbank is a mere 

 " practical" plant experimenter who has no knowl- 

 edge of theoretical biology. Practical he surely 

 is, and at all times he has considered that results 

 are more important than methods; yet he never 

 could have obtained the results that have made 

 him famous had he not from the outset had the 

 clearest comprehension of the subtlest principles 

 of heredity, and the most sharply defined notions 

 as to the methods through which these principles 

 could be made available. 



HYBKID ALMONDS 



Perhaps it is not too much to say that the prin- 

 ciple that hybridization of different species may 

 produce new races sometimes entitled to specific 

 rank was an original discovery made by Mr. Bur- 

 bank and demonstrated by him as it has been dem- 

 onstrated by no one else. Even to this day a good 

 many biologists refuse to recognize this principle 

 as an important factor in the evolution of species. 

 Yet it is hard to doubt its cogency when one 

 has had opportunity to examine the extraordinary 

 new races that Mr. Burbank has thus produced. 



We have just seen striking illustrations of this 

 in the case of several species of nut-bearing trees. 

 Other illustrations no less striking, though quite 



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