LUTHER BURBANK 



species from different parts of the globe would 

 have settled the matter forever in my mind. 



For when I mated these immigrants from the 

 Orient with European stock, I saw produced 

 "spontaneous" variations from the ancestral type 

 of either parent in endless profusion just such 

 material as would be available in a wild stock for 

 the operation of natural selection. 



And ultimately, as will be told more at length 

 in another connection, when I made still wider 

 hybridizations, in which the apricot was one 

 member of the alliance, there was produced in 

 my orchard a new plant so widely divergent from 

 either of its parent forms that few botanists if 

 any would be disposed to deny it the rank and 

 title of a new species. 



I refer of course to the plumcot. 



Having been, as it were, the agent of Nature 

 in the development of this new species, I could 

 never in future question the method through 

 which species are commonly produced. 



I applied the method in numerous other cases 

 with corresponding results, as will appear in due 

 course; but for the moment the plums have the 

 platform and we are chiefly concerned with their 

 share in the interesting and important revelation. 

 WHY INDIVIDUALS VARY 



Doubtless I should never have been led to 



[42] 



