LUTHER BURBANK 



been no less wonderful than the exploration of the 

 world of the infinite vastness by the astronomer. 



And perhaps it should not seem strange to any 

 one who has a philosophical conception of the 

 underlying harmonies in nature, that the condi- 

 tions revealed in the microcosm of the living cell 

 should suggest in many ways an epitome of those 

 made manifest in the macrocosm. 



Such, at all events, is the message that the 

 modern biologist and physicist bring us from the 

 world of infinite littleness. Making the first stages 

 of their invasion with the aid of a microscope, they 

 show us that all living tissues, vegetable or animal, 

 are composed of cells, and that within each cell 

 there is a vitally important central structure called 

 the nucleus. 



This structure lies at the heart of every germ 

 cell through which a living organism propagates 

 its kind. 



The pollen grain of the plant, for example, is 

 the carrier of such a germinal nucleus. The pollen 

 grain itself is a structure of almost microscopic 

 size, yet it is colossal in comparison with the in- 

 finitesimal fleck of germinal matter that lies at its 

 center. Yet the modern microscope can so mag- 

 nify this fleck of matter that something of the 

 mechanism of its vital parts becomes visible. 



The microscopist tells us that within the germi- 



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