INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 97 



Kight here on this experiment farm you may 

 find hundreds of evidences of heredity more 

 striking than that — more striking because they 

 are the evidences of heredity in plant life, in- 

 stead of in animal life. 



Here you will find plants which show tenden- 

 cies unquestionably inherited from a line of an- 

 cestry going back perhaps ten thousand years 

 or more — tendencies, some of them, which now 

 seem strangely out of place because the condi- 

 tions which gave rise to them in their ancestors 

 no longer exist; tendencies like those of the 

 cactus, the rose, and the blackberry to protect 

 themselves from wild beasts when wild beasts are 

 no longer enemies ; tendencies to deck themselves 

 in colors designed to attract the insects of a for- 

 gotten age — insects which, perhaps, no man has 

 ever seen. 



iWhere some incredulity might be expressed 

 as to w^hether the bear had not actually been 

 taught to fish for salmon, or seen another bear 

 perform the act, there can be no such question 

 in the case of heredity in plants. 



Here in this bed of sweet peas is a plant which 

 has inherited the climbing, twining tendency. 



This is an evidence that, at some time back in 

 its history, this plant has probably been crowded 

 for room. Plants which grow high do so usually 



Vol. 1 — Bur. D 



