LUTHER BURBANK 



and permanency of the new and anomalous breed. 

 It enables us in a sense to understand the para- 

 doxical fact that a berry having a whole galaxy 

 of black ancestors may have no strain of black- 

 ness, no tendency to reversion to the black type, in 

 its composition. 



But we must not put the cart before the horse 

 by supposing that the new explanation adds any- 

 thing to the force of the previously observed facts. 

 Hypotheses are for the interpretation of observed 

 phenomena, not phenomena for the interpretation 

 of hypotheses. 



One other word in this connection. To would- 

 be plant experimenters who ask my opinion of 

 matters connected with the old versus the new 

 interpretations of heredity, I am accustomed to 

 say: -;'■ 



"Read Darwin first, and gain a full comprehen- |g|;; 

 sion of the meaning of Natural Selection. Then 

 read the modern Mendelists in detail. But then — 

 go back again to Darwin." 



Bear in mind Professor J. M. Coulter's com- 

 ment that "Mendelism has extended from its 

 simple original statement into a speculative 

 philosophy," and try for your own satisfaction to 

 separate the usable formulae from the intricate 

 vagaries of the new creed of heredity. 



Let me cite a recent assertion of Professor 



[70] 



