NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 
has been of absorbing interest to those scien- 
tists who have visited Mr. Burbank. DeVries, 
already referred to, had for years been devel- 
oping the theory of mutation—elsewhere 
noted in connection with Mr. Burbank’s theo- 
ries—but when he came to see the wonderful 
results that Mr. Burbank had achieved on so 
great a scale he was impelled to write thus: 
“One of the most marvelous features of 
Burbank’s work is the immensity of the num- 
ber of his different seedlings. This is a power- 
ful principle, to reach in a short time such 
very important variations. The rule is: Thou- 
sands of seedlings for each hybrid. . . . Half 
a million lily bulbs, a result of one crossing 
through thrice repeated crossings and selec- 
tions, were entirely destroyed after fifty 
of the best bulbs were selected for further 
culture. And so I might cite all kinds of 
examples. 
“Every one understands that the chance to 
find something good is greater if it can be 
made from several hundred thousand than 
from only a few hundreds. Those who wish 
to compete with Burbank must accept this 
principle, and, if this cannot be done, must 
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