214 IJTHER BURBANK 



"One of tlurn lias lar^ showy flowers, the 

 other small and iiKonspicuous ones. The hot 

 calb the Urge-flowered species Madia eU^uns. 

 and the other Jf . aaltiM. The two speeiet do not 

 look mtich alike, and some hotanists even classify 

 them in difi*erent genera. 



**!( you look at all closely you will see that 

 there is a third form of plant, bearing some re- 

 sembUooe to each of them, growing among the 

 others, and that this is a natural hybrid between 

 the twa 



'*If you examine this hybrid, yon will find that 

 its branches are less spreading than t)iui»c of its 

 large-flowered parent, although not upright like 

 those of the other parent; and that the st* 

 stouter than that of either parent As to foliagt:, 

 the hybrid plants have larger and thicker leaves 

 than those of the large-flowered tarweed, more 

 closely resembling the other species in this re- 

 spect, but the ray flowers are intermediate in size 

 and shape as well as color, the reddish-brown that 

 characterises the flower of the more conspiaious 

 parent being reduced in the hybrid to a spot just 

 in the top of the tube. 



"So here you are probably witnessing the crea- 

 tion of a new species in nature. You, of course, 

 are an evolutionist and therefore are aware that 

 all species of plants as well as animals have been 



