210 LUTHER BURBANK 



cess which we can observe without doubt or 

 difficulty. 



But when, on the other hand^ we see the pro- 

 visions in nature against crossing out of kind, 

 those numberless ingenious devices designed to 

 prevent the production of hybrids, we have no 

 right to conclude that hybrids are not a part of 

 the Scheme of Things. 



They are — else there would be no hybrids. 



Crossing between plants of the same kind is a 

 continuous active process necessary to the pro- 

 duction of better and better individuals. 



Crossing out of kind, while more radical, is a 

 process which has just as definite an end as cross- 

 ing within kinds. 



Let us go back to our African daisies. 



If we read their history aright, there was, 

 first, an orange flower which grew in the open 

 veldt — a flower which accommodated itself to the 

 peculiarities of the soil and the air in which it 

 grew, and to its plant, insect, and animal neigh- 

 bors — so that it became a thriving, successful 

 race, each generation a little stronger — each year 

 seeing it increase in numbers and spread in ter- 

 ritory. In its spread, we may well imagine that 

 the winds, or the animals, carried its seed ovei^ 

 otherwise impassable barriers — just as human 

 environment carries one son to New York to 



