LUTHER BURBANK 



the plant, therefore, refuse to conform to the prin- 

 ciples of Mendelian segregation, and hit upon a 

 compromise in which the traits of each plant find 

 representation. 



But the flower, somewhat less fixed as to its 

 characteristics, and indeed somewhat less widely 

 divergent in the two species, accepts a compro- 

 mise of a different order, and, under stimulus of 

 that strange influence which we do not well under- 

 stand but which we see constantly illustrated, it 

 takes on a new vigor of growth. 



It surpasses the flowers of either one of its 

 immediate ancestors somewhat as the hybrid 

 Royal Walnut tree surpasses its parents in growth. 



This phenomenon of great vigor or tendency to 

 excessive growth developed through hybridization, 

 is, as we have seen, a very common one; its peculi- 

 arity in the present instance is merely that here it 

 applies to the flower of the plant alone, whereas 

 elsewhere we have usually seen it apply to the 

 entire structure of the plant, including at least in 

 some cases (for example the Primus Berry, the 

 Phenomenal Berry, and the Royal Walnut) the 

 fruit as well. 



Let me add that when the Opuntias not quite 

 so diverse in form as the giants and dwarfs were 

 hybridized, the progeny showed the tendency to 

 increased vigor of general growth, not merely to 



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