LUTHER BURBANK 



The lesson to be drawn, then, from this experi- 

 ment is that when we wish to modify a plant as 

 to some particular feature of its anatomy, we 

 shall proceed to best advantage if we (1) select 

 an individual that shows the most marked 

 departure from the normal in the desired direction 

 of any that can be found; (2) isolate this plant so 

 that its flowers shall be self -fertilized, or else hand 

 poUenize them; and then (3) follow out a similar 

 course of selection of the best individual and self- 

 fertilization of its flowers through successive gen- 

 erations until the maximum amount of variation 

 in the desired direction that is attainable has been 

 produced. It sometimes hastens the process to 

 combine two or more of the best plants by cross- 

 ing rather than to depend on a single one. 



We shall see in other connections, as indeed 

 we have previously seen in our studies of many 

 plants, that it is frequently desirable to stimulate 

 variation by hybridizing plants that are divergent, 

 even plants of different species. But when an 

 individual plant presenting an approach to the 

 desired variation or modification has been found 

 among the hybrid progeny, the successive steps of 

 inbreeding and selection, through which the char- 

 acter is accentuated and fixed, will be carried out 

 precisely as in the case of the little heuchera just 

 cited. 



[20] 



