IMPROVING THE HUMAN PLANT 



But it must be recalled that the plant developer 

 always has full privilege of excluding the unde- 

 sirables from the hybrid fraternity. He can pick 

 out one or two individual hybrids showing desir- 

 able qualities, and can eliminate the thousands 

 that are unfit. 



As a single illustration, let us recall the Phe- 

 nomenal berry, a hybrid between the California 

 dewberry and the Cuthbert raspberry. It will be 

 recalled that this individual plant was the only one 

 worth preserving out of a hybrid colony of many 

 thousand individuals. 



The one valuable plant was carefully preserved 

 and nurtured. The thousands of undesirables were 

 piled in a heap and burned. The blending of 

 different racial strains had produced one highly 

 prized new specific form. Granted the privilege 

 of destroying the undesirables, the experiment was 

 eminently worth making and the results were alto- 

 gether gratifying 



But w r hat if it had been incumbent on the plant 

 developer to preserve the thousands of undesir- 

 able hybrids? 



Not all of them were altogether obnoxious, to 

 be sure. Yet a very large proportion of them com- 

 bined racial traits of remote ancestors in such a 

 way as to make them very unfit members of a 

 colony of cultivated plants. 



[231] 



