I 



PLANT AFFINITIES 



Choosing the Lines of Least 

 Resistance 



WHY do not plants cross in a state of 

 nature?" a friend asked me. "You seem 

 to get most of your new varieties by 

 crossing old ones. Why does not nature take a 

 leaf from your notebook and produce new species 

 in the same way?" 



And I was able to inform this inquiring friend, 

 much to his surprise, that the method he sug- 

 gested was one that nature had practiced from 

 the beginning, and is constantly practicing all 

 about us. 



We were standing near the gateway of the 

 Sebastopol place. 



"Just over by the roadside," I said, "you may 

 see for yourself precisely such an experiment 

 in plant combination as I have made in the 

 case of thousands of plants. Do you see those 

 tarweeds? Doubtless you are familiar with 

 them. 



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