212 LUTHER BURBANK 



brought them out of the woods and into the 

 sunshine; or that the same tendency which got 

 one division of the family into the woods 

 would eventually have taken other divisions 

 to the same woods; and that, sooner or later, 

 there would have been white daisies growing 

 alongside of orange daisies, so that, through 

 the slow processes of nature, the same result 

 which we produced by artificial means would 

 have been achieved. 



And so, in all of our experiments with plants, 

 we shall find that we are not working against 

 evolution, but with it; that we are merely pro- 

 viding it with short cuts into the centuries to 

 come — short cuts which do not change the final 

 result, but only hasten its accomplishment. 



And who shall say that we, helping our plants 

 to do in 1921 what without our help they might 

 not be able to do before 3921 — who shall say that 

 we are not elements in evolution just as the 

 bees, and the birds, and the butterflies, and 

 the winds, and rains, and frosts — who shall 

 say that our influence, inestimably greater than 

 any other influence in the life of a plant — is 

 not an integral part of progress in the Scheme 

 of Things? 



In hastening evolution, we can, and do, play a 

 more important part even than that of bringing 



