LUTHER BURBANK 



thought of as having as much individuality as any 

 member of a developed organism 



We saw that, even if we considered the individ- 

 ual parts or members of a germ cell to nxmiber a 

 thousand or more, there are available many 

 billions of atoms to make up each member. 



I^et us then, finally, recall the teaching of the 

 modern biologist, who gives us reason to believe 

 that, just as each individual higher organism is 

 produced by the union of two complementary ele- 

 ments, male and female, so there is union of com- 

 plementary elements within the intimate structure 

 of the ovule itself to form each new character. 

 That is to say, using the accepted terminology, it 

 is necessary in building up any character that is 

 to be made manifest in the future adult organism, 

 that there shall be a blending of two hereditary 

 factors, which we may now think of as individual 

 members of the germ plasm colony or organism. 



For example, there are factors of thorniness 

 and factors of thornlessness in the germinal cell of 

 the blackberry. 



There are color factors for blackness and for 

 whiteness in the case of our other blackberry. 



It may be in any given case that the two factors 

 united both represent thorniness, in which case 

 the future plant will bear thorns. It may be, on 

 the other hand, that the two factors both represent 



[290] 



