LUTHER BURBANK 



has been brought about, and that in the long lapse 

 of ages, the highest forms of existing plants have 

 been built up by successive stages of inheritance 

 from the lowliest single-celled organisms. 

 THE STATUS OF MENDELISM 



In the large view, then, whereas it will be rec- 

 ognized that all acquired traits have their influ- 

 ence in heredity, yet it will also be recognized thai 

 the vast sum of qualities that are of less recent 

 origin has preponderant influence, and that the 

 racial characteristics as a whole are overwhelming 

 in their power as against any individual modifica- 

 tions. 



Yet, to complete our picture, we must recognize 

 also that nature is not conservative, as she is 

 commonly said to be, but is highly progressive. It 

 could not be otherwise, in a world in which the 

 natural environing conditions are constantly 

 changing. 



The basal law of evolution, as we have seen, is 

 that the unchanging, the conservative organism, is 

 doomed. It is only the progressive, the changeable, 

 the plastic organism that can hope to maintain 

 itself and perpetuate its kind indefinitely. 



The price of specific life is that the species 

 shall not maintain its identity. 



And this interpretation of the situation gives a 

 clew, so it would seem, to that important and inter- 



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