ON THE POSSIBILITIES 
Possibly as striking an illustration of this as 
could be chosen is one which made itself evident 
in the plumcot. 
So intent was Mr. Burbank on his purpose of 
combining two species, the plum and the apricot— 
so single-minded was his idea of producing a fruit 
which should reflect its double parentage in flesh 
and flavor—that he lost sight of some of the 
incidental possibilities of such a combination. 
The cross having been made, however, he set 
about to study the other new characters which the 
combination showed. 
Some of these were recognized as being of 
little practical value. 
The foliage of the plumcot tree, for example, 
does not necessarily resemble the plum or the 
apricot, being intermediate and representing a 
perfect blend. Though, it may be noted in passing, 
the foliage of a cross or hybrid often takes on the 
characteristics of either one parent or the other, 
or may consist of varicolored leaves, or may even 
present leaves of two distinct kinds. This is an 
interesting and important subject which will be 
clearly illustrated with direct color photographs 
later. 
Finding the plumcot foliage a blend, Mr. Bur- 
bank was not surprised to discover that the root 
of the plumcot tree resembled in color neither the 
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