418 LUSSOJVS WITS PLANTS 



to choose some plant at his own home of which he would take 

 records from year to year. Wholly aside from the possible value 

 of such notes as records of climate, the note-taking would define 

 and direct the pupil's observation. 



LXXXII. THE BREEDING OF PLANTS 



530. We have been impressed with the fact that 

 plants are adapted or fitted to the conditions in 

 which they grow, and we believe that much of this 

 adaptation has come to pass because those variations 

 which were best fitted to live in the given conditions 

 did live and perpetuated their kind, and the others 

 perished. If we personify nature, we may say that 

 she selects the fit and discards the unfit. This is 

 the hypothesis of natural selection, or Darwinism. 



531. The gardener sows a row of lettuce. He 

 sows more seeds than he desires plants, knowing 

 that some seeds may not grow and some of the 

 young plants maj'^ die or be injured. When the* 

 plants are well up, he thins them, taking out, per- 

 haps, two-thirds of them; but he always leaves the 

 largest and best, and it is from these best plants 

 that seeds are saved. This is a process of selection, 

 and is comparable with natural selection. 



532. The original parents of domestic plants 

 were wild plants; but the domestic plants finally 

 became very unlike the plants from which they 



