high. Fasciation (flattened stem) is probably found in all species 
of plants. Another striking example of it (described in a previous 
leaflet on Nicotiana) is that of a single plant discovered near 
Alquiza, Cuba, in a field of Havana or Cuban tobacco, a variety 
normally possessing only eighteen to twenty-four commercial 
leaves, but the fasciated specimen had over one hundred and fifty. 
A type of pea with a fasciated stem has been known tor over three 
hundred years. Many types of fasciation are inherited under all 
ordinary conditions, while some types may only be brought about 
by disease or insect damages. On the Pacific coast spraying 
orchards with insect poisons is a general and efficient practice, 
but recently, a scientist has made certain observations which seem 
to show that the present kinds of spray remedies may not always 
prove efficient, as constant spraying has served as a selective 
agent whereby certain insect individuals naturally immune to the 
spray, have been isolated and enabled to increase more rapidly 
because of the destruction of their noil-immune brethren, just as 
contagious diseases among the Chinese from time to time have 
killed off those which lack natural immunity until now, as a race, 
they are practically immune to a large number of the diseases 
which are fatal to Europeans. 
So great a place in the living world has this thing called 
variability that with all their best efforts, our breeders, agricul- 
turists, and seedsmen have hard work to keep it within legitimate 
and desirable bounds. Varieties of vegetables and flowering plants 
must be carefully watched on the big seed farms to keep down 
the rogues or worthless variations. Stock breeders must be ever 
on the alert to keep their breeding animals up to the standard 
breed type. Grain growers, potato farmers and florists suffer 
from the so-called “running out’’ of once valuable varieties. 
Varieties of fruit and vegetables valuable in one locality prove 
worthless in another and vice versa. That is why our forefathers 
here in America had to start all over again instead of using the 
varieties they brought from their old home. That is why our 
eastern grapes are of the Concord type instead of the old world 
solid flesh type, such as are successfully grown in the new world 
only in California. That is why every section of the world, 
differentiated by climate or soil, needs its own made-to-order 
varieties of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. And in order to fur- 
nish material for making these varieties, the national Department 
of Agriculture has explorers and correspondents in all parts of 
the world on the lookout for new and strange varieties and species 
of vegetables, flowers, and fruits. Many of these by themselves 
may prove almost worthless to us, but certain characters they 
have may be extremely valuable when combined through crossing 
with the desirable characters of other varieties. For example, 
the all but worthless Japanese hedge orange, Poncirus tiifoliata , 
has sour, undesirable small fruit, but is hardy, even on Long 
4 
