LUTHER BURBANK 



changes are that produce the perfume of a flower, 

 or through precisely what transmutation of forces 

 one flower is made to produce an odor quite 

 different from the odor of other flowers. 



But for that matter no one knows just what are 

 the conditions that induce the stimulus that we 

 interpret as an odor of any kind. The sense of 

 smell seems the most mysterious of our senses. 



But whatever these inherent conditions may be, 

 they constitute changes in the intimate structure 

 of the plant itself that must be admitted to be 

 important in character, inasmuch as they have to 

 do with the well-being of the plant, and may even 

 determine — through their appeal or lack of appeal 

 to insects — the perpetuation or the elimination of 

 a species. 



In the case of my scented calla it was perfume 

 alone that differentiated a particular individual 

 from thousands of other individuals growing in 

 the same plot. 



On this basis alone I selected out this particular 

 flower, put it in a plot by itself, gave it every 

 encouragement, and determined that its progeny 

 should live and perpetuate the particular strain it 

 represented; whereas but for this single feature 

 of variation, that individual plant would in all 

 probability have been destroyed along with 

 hundreds of others. 



[82] 



