ON HURRYING EVOLUTION 



highly flavored plum on another tree, or if we 

 desired to effect a cross between any two selected 

 parents, we should find it necessary to do our own 

 work of pollenation. 



* * * * * 



It would seem that much of the ingenuity 

 evident in nature is directed toward a two-fold 

 end: 



First, toward producing an endless combination 

 of heredities in plants of the same kind which, 

 to give them a name, we may call crosses. 



And second, to prevent the combination of 

 things out of kind which, to distinguish them 

 from crosses, we may call hybrids. 



The first aim ensures infinite variation the 

 mixing up of parallel strains of heredity in such a 

 way that no two living things are exactly alike, 

 and that, in each new balance of tendencies pro- 

 duced, there is the possibility of an improvement. 



The second explains why, though all roses differ 

 from each other, yet all are roses why, though 

 every living thing has its own individuality, its 

 own personality, each bears the unmistakable 

 characteristics of its kind. 



+ * * * * 



"Here and there through nature, nevertheless, 

 are hybrids. Are these accidents the result of 

 some carelessness, some lapse?" 



[181] 



