LUTHER BURBANK 



orange daisy is the heredity of ages of sunshine, 

 and the white of the other daisy is the inheritance 

 of ages of shade; that both started from the same 

 point, and that one found itself growing in cleared 

 fields, while around the other developed a forest 

 of shade; so that, finally, as environment piled up 

 on environment and accumulated into heredity, 

 each flower became so firmly fixed in its own 

 characteristics as to constitute a species, as man 

 has chosen to call it, of its own. 



If we take the seeds of the African orange 

 daisy, and plant them in the shade, they will 

 still produce orange flowers. That is stored up 

 hereditJ^ No doubt, if we continued, year after 

 year, to replant them in the shade for a centur>' 

 or so, they would begin to transform themselves 

 to white as the other daisy did. 



If we plant the white African daisy in the 

 sunshine, it will still give us flowers of white — 

 the heredity of ages overbalancing the pull of 

 immediate environment, and needing a long con- 

 tinued repetition of environment to balance and 

 finally overcome it; but if we were to keep it in 

 the sun throughout enough generations, it would, 

 no doubt, bear us flowers of brilliant orange. 



Here, then, is a single plant reflecting two 

 divergent strains of hereditj"^ — one orange, one 

 white — one sturdj', one weak — each strain so 



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