LUTHER BURBANK 



The stamens that normally grow in a circle 

 about the central pistil develop at their ends 

 anthers that produce, usually in relatively large 

 quantities, pollen grains of exceedingly minute 

 size. And each pollen grain contains, somewhat 

 as does each ovule, all the hereditary potentialities 

 of the entire plant. The pollen grain cannot, 

 indeed, be made to develop into a plant; but its 

 union with the ovule is essential to the develop- 

 ment of that organism, and it is certain that the 

 pollen grain, despite its infinitesimal size, brings 

 to the union factors that represent its parent plant 

 effectively and in full measure. 



It would be unbelievable, if we did not know 

 it to be true, that a fleck of matter of scarcely 

 more than microscopic size should contain the 

 potentialities of a mammoth tree, and should pre- 

 determine the details of structure of a future tree 

 even to its remotest leaf and to the finest details 

 of its flowers and fruit. But that the pollen grain 

 actually has these potentialities has been demon- 

 strated thousands of times over by the plant 

 experimenter. 



Any amateur who wishes to test the matter 

 may do so, to his complete satisfaction, by making 

 the simplest experiment in cross-pollenizing and 

 watching the growth of the hybrid seedlings his 

 work brings forth. 



[88] 



