IMPROVING SMALL FRUITS 59 



hereditary factors are able to combine with such 

 certitude and grow and multiply and reproduce 

 themselves indefinitely. 



This part of the procedure is indeed mysterious 

 and beyond the fathoming of the human mind. 



Yet perhaps it may be made to seem at least 

 a little more tangible and explicable, even if not 

 less mysterious, by an interpretation in which 

 we are permitted for once to make use of the 

 imagination. Suppose we imagine the existence 

 within the complex structure of the infinitesimal 

 germ plasm organism of a being of human 

 intelligence, but of atomic proportions — an elf 

 that has control of the hereditary factors, con- 

 sidered now as material entities, and directs their 

 use in the building up of a new organism, some- 

 what as a human architect directs the use of ma- 

 terial in the construction of a human habitation. 



Let us then assume that the material making 

 up the nucleus of a pollen cell as it comes to the 

 ovule of a flower and is brought in contact with 

 the nucleus of the ovule, is in charge of one such 

 elfin architect, and that the materials of the 

 nucleus of the ovule itself are in charge of an- 

 other elfin architect. The task of building the 

 new structure that is to result from the union 

 of the two nuclei devolves upon these two elfin 

 architects jointly. They must work in cooper- 



