THE SHASTA DAISY 



mixed ancestry, exceeded my utmost expectations 

 in its combination of desirable qualities. I can 

 hardly say, however, that the result achieved was 

 a surprise; for my experience with hundreds of 

 other species had led me to anticipate, at least in 

 a general way, the transformations that might be 

 effected through such a mingling of different 

 ancestral strains as had been brought about. 



There was every reason to expect, while 

 hybridizing the American and European ox-eyes, 

 that a plant could ultimately be produced that 

 would combine in various degrees all the qualities 

 of each parent form. By selecting for preservation 

 only those that combined the desirable qualities, 

 and destroying those that revealed the undesirable 

 ones, a fixed, persistent hybrid race that very 

 obviously excelled either one of its parent forms 

 was produced. 



Nor is there, perhaps, anything very mystifying 

 about this result, for the simpler facts of the 

 hereditary transmission of ancestral traits are now 

 matters of common knowledge and of every-day 

 observation. 



No one is surprised, for example, to see a 

 child that resembles one parent as to stature, let 

 us say, and the other as to color of hair and eyes. 



So a hybrid daisy combining in full measure 

 the best qualities of the European and the 



[17] 



