LUTHER BURBANK 
to tobacco, valued for its chemical content—and 
so on throughout all of the variations. 
The tomato, we should see, was the last of the 
family to fall into a violent change of environment. 
A tropical plant, bearing fruits about the size 
of a hickory nut and not believed to be edible, 
the tomato found its way into the United States 
within the past century. 
At first, the tomato plant was prized merely 
as an ornament; it was grown as we now grow 
rose bushes, and the fruit was looked upon 
as a mantel decoration, until, by accident, it was 
discovered to be edible. There are, in fact, many 
such ornamentals today which might bear us 
edible fruit. One, in particular, the passion 
flower, which Mr. Burbank is developing, will form 
the subject of an interesting description later on. 
Following the discovery that the tomato was 
edible came the same course of unconscious selec- 
tion that falls to the lot of every useful plant. The 
biggest tomatoes were saved, the better tomatoes 
were cultivated. 
In the environment of the tropics, the tomato 
fruit of hickory nut size was ideal; it cost less 
effort to produce than a larger tomato; it contained 
sufficient seeds to insure reproduction. 
But with the advent of man into its environ- 
ment, its seed chambers increased in number, the 
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