98 LUTHER BURBANK 



because, at some stage in their existence, they 

 have had to grow high to get the sun and air 

 which they need. Low-lying plants, like the 

 pumpkin for example, give evidence that they 

 have always enjoyed plenty of space in which 

 to spread out. 



It might be thought that the bear in the story 

 may possibly have slipped away, unknown to its 

 keepers, and seen another bear fish for salmon; 

 but if these tendencies and traits, and if the 

 ability to perform the feats necessary for exist- 

 ence are not passed down from mother to son — 

 if they do not come down through the line of 

 ancestry, if all of the old environments of the 

 past have not accumulated into transmissible 

 heredity, what enables that sweet pea to 

 climb u]Don some support to reach the needed 

 light? 



A closer observation of the sweet pea will show 

 us that its tendrils are really modified leaves, 

 produced like the spines of the cactus, by ages of 

 environment which, added up, combine to make 

 heredity; and that their actual sensitiveness to 

 touch is so highly developed that they adroitly 

 encircle and hold fast to any suitable support 

 within their reach. 



It would be interesting to take a motion 

 picture of the sweet pea as it grows, as similar 



