ON FACT VS. THEORY 



"And that is why those who had devoted their 

 lifetimes to counting stamens and classifying 

 shapes told me, through their writings, that a cross 

 might be made within species, but never between 

 species; that is why when I did make a cross 

 between species they looked no further into the 

 truth, but simply moved up a notch, and said, 

 'Very well, but you cannot make a cross between 

 genera'; that is why, when I did that very thing, 

 not once, but scores of times, that type of scientist 

 lost interest in rule making and went back to 



stamen counting." 



***** 



To realize the point more clearly, let us observe 

 for a moment the common tomato which belongs 

 to that large division of plants, the nightshade 

 family. 



Just as the rose family includes not only the 

 rose, but the apple and the blackberry and 

 sixty-two other plants, so the nightshade family 

 includes seventy-five genera and more than 

 eighteen hundred species. 



The classification is built around structural 

 facts, such as that plants of this family originally 

 had alternate leaves with five stamens and a two- 

 celled ovary, or egg chamber, each cell containing 

 many eggs. 



These structural similarities in the plants of 



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