NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



laws have been accepted by the scientific 

 world. 



Over and over again, through a series 

 of many years, dealing with millions of 

 plants and upon a scale which dwarfs all 

 other experimentation, Mr. Burbank has 

 shown the total inadequacy of these "laws." 

 At his home in Santa Rosa stands a row of 

 walnut trees, already referred to. These may 

 be taken as a fair illustration of the manifold 

 facts bearing on the points which have been 

 developed by him. Instead of following any 

 set proportion or ratio, the parental character- 

 istics appeared in the children with absolutely 

 no regard for law or even order, while many 

 new characters were developed. Thousands 

 of different forms were assumed by the leaves, 

 for example, absolutely unlike the forms 

 of the parent leaves. The nuts which came 

 from the new trees were often wholly unlike 

 those of either parent ; indeed, very frequently, 

 they were wholly different from any walnuts 

 ever known before. Sometimes there were 

 five leaves on a stem, sometimes twenty or 

 thirty, sometimes fifty. Many assumed, too, 

 a most delicious fragrance, a character wholly 



