NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



break, a sudden, sharp break in its life. I have 

 introduced a new element into the old life. I 

 have broken it up. Henceforth if I keep on 

 breeding and selecting from this new line the 

 old life can never be quite the same again. If 

 the fruit tree, for example, has been for all its 

 history growing in a certain climate under 

 certain practically unvarying conditions of 

 moisture, heat and cold, it must be abruptly 

 changed in order that it shall accommodate 

 itself to new degrees of heat or cold or 

 different amounts of moisture. To what 

 distance I shall carry the plant along its new 

 line depends upon how soon it achieves, and is 

 fixed in, the life I wish it to assume. Very 

 many theories have been held based upon 

 carrying a plant a certain distance. When the 

 point was reached where the plant appeared to 

 refuse to go any further, the conclusion has 

 usually been that this ends it all. This is 

 by no means the case. Plants are sometimes 

 stubborn and need discipline. It is utterly 

 impossible to say that a plant can have only a 

 certain number of leaves, or a certain number 

 of seed-capsules or a certain number of certain 

 other characters. The trouble is that men have 



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