Scientific Aspects of Luther Burbank's Work 



and celestial movements. These small increments 

 from environmental forces may produce a gradual 

 or sudden change according to circumstances. 

 The combustion of food liberates the moving 

 force, environment guides it as it does the planets. 



'*When once the persistent type is broken up, 

 old latent forces may be liberated and types buried 

 in the dim past reappear. This, called atavism, 

 is a concentration of ancestral forces — reverber- 

 ating echoes — from varieties long since passed 

 away, exhibiting themselves when from some 

 cause, for instance crossing, present forces are in 

 a state of antagonism, division, perturbation or 

 weakness. These echoes, if collected by crossing 

 and section, produce combinations of superlative 

 importance and value.'' 



Finally, in any summation of the scientific 

 aspects of Burbank's work must be mentioned the 

 hosts of immensely valuable data regarding the 

 inheritance of characteristics, the influence of 

 epigenetic factors in development, the possibilities 

 of plant variability, and what not else important 



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