THE SUM OF HIS WORK 



would be to introduce an element of iconoclasm 

 that would shake the entire structure of systematic 

 botany. 



So when evidence is presented that a black- 

 berry and a raspberry have been hybridized, and 

 that the offspring is a plant quite as fertile as either 

 of its parents, though markedly different from 

 both, the case seems to give evidence that the off- 

 spring of true species are not necessarily sterile. 



And the fact that the new hybrid differs so 

 widely from either parent that it would be named 

 by the classifier as constituting a new species 

 according to ordinary standards, and that it breeds 

 true to its new form, seems to furnish further evi- 

 dence that new species of plant life may conceiv- 

 ably arise by the hybridization of old species. 



In a word, a single case like that of the hybrid 

 Blackberry-raspberry, described and depicted in 

 New Creations under the name of the Primus 

 Berry, would seem by itself fairly to establish the 

 doctrine that new species of plants may arise by 

 the hybridization of old species. 



Stated otherwise, the case of the Primus berry 

 would seem to furnish unequivocal evidence as to 

 at least one way in which the problem of the 

 origin of new species might be answered. The 

 survival of the fittest had been explained as an 

 essential part of the Darwinian doctrine. The 



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