LUTHER BURBANK 



Stated otherwise, this means that so-called 

 "spontaneous" variation, which Darwin found 

 mysterious, is really due, or for the most part due, 

 to the bringing together of diverse ancestral 

 strains through cross-fertilization. 



It is varieties thus developed that furnish ma- 

 terial for the operation of Natural Selection, 

 through which as Darwin taught us new spe- 

 cies have heen evolved in the past and are still 

 being evolved. 



I think I had more than half fathomed this 

 mighty secret before I had made extensive ex- 

 periments in plant hybridization. But in any 

 event I had not gone far with my experiments in 

 plant development before I found evidence pil- 

 ing up on every side to reassure me that what I 

 had heard was no illusory voice but the voice of 

 Nature herself. 



Doubtless no single tribe of plants served me 

 better in this connection, or were more obviously 

 the medium through which Nature's great secret 

 was revealed to me and corroborated, than the 

 tribe of plums. And in the forefront of the com- 

 pany, in this connection, must be named the 

 twelve little seedlings from Japan. 



If I had entertained any doubt as to the cor- 

 rectness of my premonitions, the results achieved 

 when these Japanese plums were allied with other 



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