THE BREEDING OF MEN 



When, for example, Mr. Burbank discovered 

 a specimen of the wild California plant called 

 heuchera, or "wild geranium," that had a 

 tendency to crinkle the edges of the leaves, he 

 transplanted this specimen to his garden and care- 

 fully inbred its progeny generation after genera- 

 tion, selecting always the ones that showed the 

 tendency of malformation of leaves, until pres- 

 ently he had a new race of heuchera with the 

 most curiously convoluted leaves. 



He could not have produced this result had he 

 not interbred individuals that had the peculiarity 

 of their heredity. 



And this, indeed, is the typical method, as al- 

 ready suggested, by which Mr. Burbank fixes and 

 accentuates a character, once that character has 

 manifested itself. It was thus, for example, that 

 the scented callas and verbenas and petunias 

 were produced ; also the improved Burbank varie- 

 ties of almost numberless other flowers, fruits, 

 and vegetables. 



Of course, in the case of the human parents 

 just referred to, the character contained in their 

 germ-plasm was one which they desired to see 

 eliminated, not perpetuated. But nature is quite 

 impartial in the application of her laws of hered- 

 ity. The same manner of transmission applies to 

 desirable traits and undesirable ones. Indeed, it 

 may be said that from the standpoint of plant 

 economy some of the same qualities that make 

 Mr. Burbank 's new fruits and flowers most desir- 

 able are abnormalities. A double flower, for ex- 



[259] 



