146 LUTHER BURBANK 



ripens— these are a part of the advertisement to 

 the birds or animals — a lure to get them to eat 

 the fiTiit and carry the seed as far away as they 

 may to another — a new — environment. 



Shall we wonder at the jumping bean and the 

 devil's-claw when our own cherry tree is getting 

 the bees to give its offspring new heredities and 

 the birds to surround these heredities with new 

 environments in which to grow? 



Wherever we look we see a new display of 

 ingenuity — all for the sake of variation — varia- 

 tion which may mean retrogression as well as 

 advancement — but such infinite variation that, 

 surely, there can be found one out of a thousand, 

 or one out of ten thousand, or one out of a mil- 

 lion better adapted than those that went before. 



Ever}*" flower that delights our eye, and every 

 fruit which pleases our palate, and every plant 

 which yields us a useful substance, is as delight- 

 ful as it is, or as pleasing or as useful as it is, 

 simply because of the improvement which has 

 been made possible through variation. 



No two living things are exactly 

 alike. 



