LUTHER BURBANK 



plants have been developed at Santa Rosa. Every- 

 where we find evidence of the segregation of unit 

 characters and their re-commingling and re-assort- 

 ment in later generations. 



Nowhere else, probably, can there be found 

 such an aggregate mass of testimony to the opera- 

 tion of this principle as will be supplied in the 

 pages that tell of my various experiments in plant 

 breeding. 



We shall have occasion to see that there are 

 cases in which there is a blending of traits, and 

 we shall find an explanation of such blending. 

 But, as the cases already presented sufficiently 

 illustrate, the carrying forward of characteristics 

 unblended, and the possibility of their restoration 

 after long submergence in new combinations, con- 

 stitutes the underlying principle that makes possi- 

 ble the rapid development of new forms of plant 

 life. 



And, reverting to the cases in hand, there is 

 no better illustration of the truth of this proposi- 

 tion than that furnished by the new cherries which 

 present in superlative measure, in a single indi- 

 vidual, ten or a dozen clearly definable qualities 

 that have been sorted out and brought together 

 from the commingling of widely divergent ances- 

 tral strains. 



The traits that were developed through 



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