LUTHER BURBANK 



is deposited, and feed the larva which hatches 

 from it with an unusual quantity of food of excep- 

 tional richness. And the individual larva thus 

 singled out for exceptional nurture grows and 

 develops at a rate disproportionate to that of its 

 fellows, and ultimately matures and becomes a 

 fertile female, which, in the terminology of the 

 apiary, is designated a queen. 



This mature individual presently goes forth 

 from the hive with a band of followers, and es- 

 tablishes a new colony. She in turn deposits eggs 

 and becomes the mother of another swarm of 

 drones and workers. 



Yet nothing is more certain than that the hered- 

 itary potentialities of the egg which thus was 

 transformed into a queen bee were in no wise 

 different from the potentialities of the thousands 

 of other eggs about it that developed only into 

 sterile workers. Nurture alone determined the 

 transformation. In this case it was purely a 

 matter of food. There was no climatic change 

 invoked or needed. Feeding alone sufficed to 

 bring about a final development of the reproduc- 

 tive organs that was denied all the other larvae 

 of the colony. 



This case of the bee is so familiar that its won- 

 derful significance is often overlooked. 



Taken by itself, it suffices to illustrate the over- 

 mastering power of nurture to decide among the 

 conflicting hereditary tendencies that lie dormant 

 in the germ-cell. 



Lest the case seem to prove too much, however, 

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