LUTHER BURBANK 



order had it been nurtured in the climate and 

 fed from the soil to which its ancestors had been 

 habituated. 



Rest and a change of climate could not give 

 new hereditary possibilities, but they could be 

 instrumental in bringing dormant possibilities to 

 full realization. 



How REST STIMULATES GROWTH 



Possibly this statement requires a further 

 word of explication, for I think we have not else- 

 where emphasized though the subject has been 

 once or twice mentioned the value of rest in en- 

 hancing the vitality of plants and in giving them 

 new capacity for growth. 



Of course nothing is more familiar and 

 therefore nothing seems more commonplace 

 than the annual dormancy of plant life in gen- 

 eral throughout the winter season in temperate 

 zones. 



But until somewhat recently no one had par- 

 ticularly associated such dormancy with the vig- 

 orous growth of the reviving plants in the spring- 

 time. 



It was familiarly known that tropical plants 

 keep up their growth, even if somewhat intermit- 

 tently, throughout the year; and it was assumed 

 that the plants of temperate zones had taken on 

 the habit of winter rest merely because this habit 



[16] 



