KfiW CftEAtlONS IN PLANT LI^ 



ing as quick guides to lead to any given step 

 in the test. Everywhere throughout the plan 

 books are notations showing the retrogression 

 of a plant under test. Deficiencies no less than 

 excellencies must be noted, in order that the 

 life history may be complete. 



One of the most interesting pages is that 

 devoted to the cactus experiments, recording 

 the kinds of cactus under test, how they were 

 crossed, dates as to planting, points as to 

 development step by step, and the like. Some- 

 times it will take an entire page to give the 

 mere facts as to a plant's ancestry, showing in 

 regular sequence the hybridizing steps it has 

 taken, the region of the world from which it 

 came, and the like. 



The plan book for the preliminary tests at 

 Santa Rosa, where much of the work has its 

 beginning, is smaller than the Sebastopol book 

 but none the less interesting. Here are re- 

 corded the earlier life-history events when the 

 seeds are being sown and transplanted. Some 

 of the pages of this book are an intricate maze 

 of notations and diagrams, all presenting a 

 bewildering mass of data to the on -looker but 

 all clear and definite and instantly available to 



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