NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 
break, a sudden, sharp break in its life. I have 
introduced a new element into the old life. I 
have broken it up. Henceforth if I keep on 
breeding and selecting from this new line the 
old life can never be quite the same again. If 
the fruit tree, for example, has been for all its 
history growing in a certain climate under 
certain practically unvarying conditions of 
moisture, heat and cold, it must be abruptly 
changed in order that it shall accommodate 
itself to new degrees of heat or cold or 
different amounts of moisture. To what 
distance I shall carry the plant along its new 
line depends upon how soon it achieves, and is 
fixed in, the life I wish it to assume. Very 
many theories have been held based upon 
carrying a plant a certain distance. When the 
point was reached where the plant appeared to 
refuse to go any further, the conclusion has 
usually been that this ends it all. This is 
by no means the case. Plants are sometimes 
stubborn and need discipline. It is utterly 
impossible to say that a plant can have only a 
certain number of leaves, or a certain number 
of seed-capsules or a certain number of certain 
other characters. The trouble is that men have 
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