246 Fertilisation and Hybridisation 



stances, they will yet react differently to them. This also 

 holds true for plants where, in the same bed, a delay of 

 only one day in germinating will, according to the weather, 

 lead either to equal or to quite surprising differences in size 

 and qualities. 



If favorable and unfavorable conditions of life alter- 

 nate during the individual development, and if they strike 

 a group of individuals sprung from like seeds at different 

 periods of their growth, quite a considerable degree of 

 individual differences must thereby result. 



These differences play in nature the same role as in 

 human society. One is adapted for this kind of task, the 

 other for that. With men it is the duty of every one to 

 develop his own talents to the best of his ability, and to 

 render as favorable as possible the circumstances for the 

 most perfect development of his children. The highest 

 efficiency of society in general demands of each the 

 strongest effort in the direction of his most favorable 

 talents. To ascertain this direction ought to be one of 

 the chief aims of education and instruction. In animals 

 and plants this highest efficiency can obviously not be 

 achieved in the same way. And especially are the con- 

 ditions different for plants, which are tied for life to the 

 place where they germinated. Here, as is well known, 

 nature is assisted by the astonishingly great number of 

 seeds ; she sows so many in every individual spot that only 

 the best, that is, the individuals best adapted for the given 

 locality, need retain life. But, by sacrificing countless 

 seeds, she also accomplishes here that adaptation of the 

 individual specimens which is the condition for the com- 

 plete unfolding of their abilities and advantages. 



Very great weight is therefore given to individual 

 differences in the life of the entire species. The greater 



