THE WINTER RHUBARB 107 



nuts. We shall note the same thing again and 

 again in connection with a multitude of other 

 plants. 



In the case of the rhubarb, the response 

 was almost immediate. Artificial selection en- 

 abled the plants that manifested the atavistic 

 tendency in largest measure to propagate their 

 kind. 



And, thus, in the course of a few generations 

 — though not without making selection among 

 hundreds of thousands of individuals — I was 

 enabled to assist the plant to bring to the surface 

 the long submerged tendencies that impelled it 

 to grow fast, to grow large, and to grow per- 

 petually. 



Xo Xew Principle Involved 



And thus the crimson winter rhubarb as it 

 finally came to perfection in my gardens is 

 accounted for. In developing it, no new princi- 

 ple was invoked, no new method even. I merely 

 took advantage of opportunities afforded by the 

 translation of the plant from one hemisphere to 

 another, and aided the plant in putting forth 

 potentialities that had long been repressed but 

 which still stubbornly persisted as latent factors 

 or submerged tendencies in the racial germ 

 plasm. 



