Practice of Plant Breeding 
only one seed germinated. The plant was an annual 
and never set any seed ! 
The third method, that of altering the conditions in 
which a plant lives in order to induce it to change or 
vary, is also, by report, used by Burbank. It is possible 
that many plant-breeders possess their own secrets as 
to culture and treatment. Both Patrick Shirreff and 
Hallett did endeavour to assist the plant in its efforts 
to produce better seeds by specially kind cultivation. 
Unfortunately the cold shadow of Weissmannism 
still discourages experiment in this direction (see below). 
But that plants can inherit the method of growth, 
&c., induced by special conditions is quite certain. 
At great altitudes in the Alps, trees grow very slowly 
and shed their leaves at a much earlier date than those 
at lower and more genial elevations. Some interesting 
experiments by Engler and Cieslar have proved that 
these habits can be inherited. 
Seeds of spruce, larch, sycamore, &c., were collected 
at various altitudes in the Alps and in Austria. Experi- 
mental gardens were then formed at various places, also 
differing in altitude, and the different rates and habits of 
growth were carefully observed and recorded. 
At Adlisberg (2200 feet) it was found that five-year- 
old spruces grown from Engadine (5950 feet) seed 
were On an average g inches, whilst others from Winter- 
thur seed (1800 feet) were 18 inches in height. So 
that those whose parents lived at very great altitudes 
grew at just half the rate of the others. The other 
characteristics of their high Alpine parents, such as a 
very extensive root system and a tendency to branch 
from the base, were also quite distinct. 
Fifteen-year-old trees from Carinthia gave quite 
similar results. One set (seed from 1700 feet) were 
4 feet 5 inches high and grew 4.2 inches in 1905, and 
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