2lS 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The possibilities of the pedigree-culture are by no means exhausted 

 with covering the above points, especially if the plants chosen for the 

 objects happen to be capable of vegetative reproduction, that is by cut- 

 tings or slips, in which case comparisons should be made of progenies 

 grown from seeds of the plant with wide leaves with individuals grown, 

 from slips of the same, and also compared with others from the extreme 

 end of the series. 



It is by undiscriminating discussions of horticultural operations 

 involving seed-selection and hybridization, followed by vegetative propa- 

 gation, that the public mind has become confused as to the nature and 



Fig. 3. Experimental Grounds showing Pedigreed Cultures of CEnnthera 

 in New York Botanical Garden. 



possibilities of selection, notably by the ' popular ' and pseudoscientific 

 descriptions of the thorough work of Mr. Burbank. By successive selec- 

 tions certain features, such as size or quality, of a fruit are forced to a 

 maximum development perhaps in a single plant, or may be in hun- 

 dreds, after which the desirable quality is carried along, or propagated, 

 in quantity by cuttings of the original plant, thus excluding a possibility 

 of a return to the average habit of the species. 



Or, in hybrid combinations and resolutions, the desirable constitu- 

 tion of some horticultural form may be secured only after the most 

 highly complicated and repeated crossing, with a result too complex to 

 be easily analyzed. With one desirable individual at hand which pro- 

 duces nuts, berries, cherries, apples, potatoes or plums, or timber, it 

 may be made to produce hundreds and thousands exactly like it merely 

 by using its buds and branches for grafting and budding or propagating. 



