LUTHER BURBANK 
primeval forms, giving the pear a texture different 
from that of any other fruit. 
This unusual habit of depositing wood cells in 
the fruits, aside from the seed case itself, is no 
longer of use to the cultivated pear; but the fact 
that it tends to be retained shows how important a 
part it bore in the struggle for existence of the 
pear’s remote ancestors. 
But let us put aside theories as to the remote 
history of the pear and consider the fruit in its 
modern relations. 
The significant thing to bear in mind is that 
in our day the pear is represented by two races, 
obviously related, yet quite as obviously long sep- 
arated, one of them finding its home in Europe 
and (since the Discovery) in America and the 
other being indigenous to eastern Asia, the two 
having thus migrated in opposite directions, 
circling the earth, and finally meeting on the 
Pacific Coast of America. 
And the fact that these two races of pears have 
thus diverged, yet still retain the capacity to hy- 
bridize, is an all-important one from the stand- 
point of the fruit developer. 
This fact is, indeed, the basis of the newest 
progress in the development of the pear, and it 
gives the augury of still more important develop- 
ments probably to take place in the near future. 
[112] 
