LUTHER BURBANK 
The foliage of these curious miniature trees 
was generally a composite, somewhat suggestive 
of each parent. But in a few instances plants 
showed leaves much shorter and more rounded 
than those of either parent, and having the edges 
coiled back in a semi-circular form. This peculiar 
coiling of the leaves was probably due to the fact 
that the mid-rib was inclined to grow more rapidly 
than the edges of the leaf. 
Unavailing effort was made for two years to 
stimulate the growth of these interesting hybrids. 
The pure bred Chinese quinces in the same row 
came in due course to the time of fruiting, but the 
hybrids showed no propensity to flower, and the 
tallest were less than a foot in height when their 
uncrossed relatives had grown to the height of ten 
or twelve feet. 
Transplanting to orchard soil and special cul- 
tivation appeared to have no effect on the dwarfs. 
The experiment was made of grafting some of 
them into old quince trees of each of the parents. 
Some of the grafts grew and had rambling, spiral- 
shaped branches, but they stopped growing when 
they had attained a length of two or three feet. 
Grafting appeared to give them somewhat en- 
hanced powers of growth, but, like the hybrid 
seedlings from which the cions were cut, they re- 
mained absolutely sterile. 
[228] 
