LUTHER BURBANK 



"Right here on this experiment farm," spoke 

 up Mr. Burbank, "you might find hundreds of 

 evidences of heredity more striking than that- 

 more striking because they are the evidences of 

 heredity in plant life, instead of in animal life. 



"Right here," said he, "you will find plants 

 which show tendencies unquestionably inherited 

 from a line of ancestry going back perhaps ten 

 thousand years or more tendencies, some of 

 them, which now seem strangely out of place 

 because the conditions which gave rise to them 

 in their ancestors no longer exist; tendencies like 

 those of the cactus and the blackberry to protect 

 themselves from wild beasts when wild beasts are 

 no longer enemies; tendencies to deck themselves 

 in colors designed to attract the insects of a 

 forgotten age insects which, perhaps, no man has 

 ever seen. 



"Where some incredulity might be expressed 

 as to whether the bear had not actually been taught 

 to fish for salmon, or seen another bear perform 

 the act, there can be no such question in the case 

 of heredity in plants. 



"Here," said he, as a bed of sweet peas was 

 approached, "is a plant which has inherited the 

 climbing, twining tendency. 



"That is an evidence that, at some time 

 back in its history, this plant has probably been 



[40] 



