Scientific Aspects of h.uther Burbank' s Work 



No farther selecting was done ; this plant was the 

 single ancestor of the fragrant new race. 



And so one might go on for pages, but with 

 slight variations in detail all these pages would tell 

 only the same story: the stimulating or inducing 

 of variability by environmental influences and by 

 hybridizations ; the search after, and keen recogni- 

 tion of, promising special variations; the selection 

 of the plants showing these variations; rearing 

 new generations from them, repeated selection, 

 and new hybridizations to eliminate this character- 

 istic or introduce that, and on until a desirable 

 combination is found. Then the careful fixing of 

 this form or type by repeated selection through 

 several generations. 



But an end must be made of this. Let us, in 

 a paragraph, simply sum up the essential things 

 in the scientific aspects of Burbank's work. No 

 new revelations to science of an overturning char- 

 acter; but the revelation of the possibilities of 

 accomplishment, based on general principles al- 

 ready known, by an unusual man. No new 



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