LUTHER BURBANK 



The seed of a plant of a valid wild variety 

 (sub-species), or the seed of a hundred plants of 

 that variety intermixed, will produce a generation 

 of offspring which, though they number thousands 

 or millions, all bear striking resemblance in their 

 essential qualities of shape and leaf and flower 

 and fruit to the parents from which they sprang 

 and to one another. 



This is the fundamental difference. 



It is a difference that should be borne con- 

 stantly in mind when we use the convenient word 

 "variety" in connection with an orchard fruit. 

 Perhaps it is unfortunate that the word has been 

 applied with this double meaning; but it is ob- 

 viously convenient, and if properly interpreted 

 it may be used without danger of confusion of 

 ideas. 



FROM GERM CELLS TO APPLES 



That the potentialities of numberless new va- 

 rieties lie hidden in the pollen grains and ovules 

 of a single flower-cluster is a thought that makes 

 strange appeal to the imagination of the intelli- 

 gent plant developer. 



When he pollenizes a flower he is bringing to- 

 gether two germinal microcosms each of which, 

 rightly viewed, is a universe within itself. 



He is dealing with individual life histories and 

 with the histories of races. 



[186] 



