LUTHER BURBANK 



the rhubarb by inducing abnormal conditions lest 

 a statement of the earlier chapter in which the 

 habits of the new variety are explained should be 

 misinterpreted. 



I referred there to the impossibility of changing 

 the habits of the ordinary rhubarb, and perma- 

 nently extending its period of bearing, by merely 

 altering the conditions of cultivation. It is of 

 course possible to cause almost any plant to ger- 

 minate out of season by greenhouse treatment. 

 Such treatment, however, has no influence on 

 succeeding generations. 



The plant caused to grow out of season merely 

 responds to the abnormal surroundings in which 

 it is placed, and will immediately revert to the 

 habits of its tribe when placed under normal 

 conditions. 



But the crimson Winter Rhubarbs in all the 

 perfected varieties produce their main crop in the 

 winter, and continue productivity throughout the 

 entire year, because of the reappearance of a latent 

 tendency to perennial bearing; and this revived 

 tendency is thoroughly fixed. As already stated, 

 plants retain this tendency when grown from seed, 

 however they may vary in other regards. So there 

 is no analogy whatever between the winter-bear- 

 ing habit of these new rhubarbs and the abnormal 

 habit of winter bearing that may be forced on an 



[216] 



