4 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 



3. The Relation of the Date Palm to Plant Breeding. 



It had probably always been recognized, since animals were 

 first extensively domesticated, that the fact of sex lay at the basis 

 of whatever improvement in their characters man could bring 



Plate IV. A young date tree in fruit. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, Bull. 271, Plate 9, Fig. 2. 



about, for the reason that, in animals, "breeding" has always 

 meant the use of superior breeding animals (usually superior 

 males) in crossing. In plants, however, the fact of sex is less 

 evident than in animals, partly because in most plants the sexes 

 are not separated. In the date palm we have at the same time a 

 plant of great economic value in certain regions, and one in which 

 the sexes exist separately as in the higher animals. It therefore 



