ON HURRYING EVOLUTION 



highly flavored plum on another tree, or if we 

 desired to effect a cross between any two selected 

 parents, we should find it necessary to do our own 

 work of poUenation. 



***** 



It would seem that much of the ingenuity 

 evident in nature is directed toward a two-fold 

 end: 



First, toward producing an endless combination 

 of heredities in plants of the same kind — which, 

 to give them a name, we may call crosses. 



And second, to prevent the combination of 

 things out of kind — which, to distinguish them 

 from crosses, we may call hybrids. 



The first aim ensures infinite variation — the 

 mixing up of parallel strains of heredity in such a 

 way that no two living things are exactly alike, 

 and that, in each new balance of tendencies pro- 

 duced, there is the possibility of an improvement. 



The second explains why, though all roses differ 

 from each other, yet all are roses — why, though 

 every living thing has its own individuality, its 

 own personality, each bears the unmistakable 

 characteristics of its kind. 



***** 



"Here and there through nature, nevertheless, 

 are hybrids. Are these accidents — the result of 

 some carelessness, some lapse?" 



[181] 



