ON HURRYING EVOLUTION 



the rains, and the frosts — who shall say that 

 our influence, inestimably greater than any other 

 influence in the life of a plant — is not an intended 

 part of progress in the Scheme of Things? 



***** 



In hurrying evolution, we can, and do, play a 

 more important part, even, than that of bringing 

 about crosses, or hybrids, which the bees or the 

 birds would never make. 



The greatest service which we render toward 

 the advancement of plant life is that of selection, 

 endless, skillful selection. 



The pink daisy was really, after all, the result, 

 principally, of selection. The important thing we 

 did was not to bring a mass of daisies together 

 for the bees to work on; the important thing was 

 to select orange daisies, and white daisies, with 

 the purpose of producing a pink one. Then, with 

 a bedful of variations, we selected again — selected, 

 this time, for the shade we wanted, and destroyed 

 the rest. 



Afterward, with that pink daisy, we began 

 a still further course of selection, selecting the 

 largest, the hardiest, the tallest; and no matter 

 how long we might continue to grow pink daisies, 

 we should keep on selecting, selecting, selecting — 

 each step in our selection, because it has the 

 human mind behind it — because it is actuated by 



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