ON THE APRICOT AND THE LOQUAT 
It combines the qualities of the plum and the 
apricot, but in itself it is neither plum nor apricot. 
So while the plumcot has exceptional qualities 
of its own, it does not solve the particular problem 
with which we are at the moment concerned. We 
are seeking, not a new fruit, but an apricot having 
a particular quality that the present apricot lacks. 
And the question of the moment is whether 
there is a probability that after blending the strains 
of the Japanese plum with its hardy blossoms and 
the apricot with its peculiar qualities of fruit, it 
may be possible in subsequent generations to re- 
assemble the qualities in such a way that we would 
have an apricot retaining the fruit qualities of its 
apricot ancestor, but combining with them the 
hardiness of blossom of its plum ancestor. 
Were the plum and the apricot a little less dis- 
tantly related the question would admit of a ready 
answer. 
It would then be almost certain that we could, 
by a series of selective breedings, produce the de- 
sired combination from union of the materials at 
hand. But the plum and the apricot, as the quali- 
ties of the hybrid plumcot show, lie so far apart 
that their progeny tends to reveal a blending of 
characters rather than a segregation of unit char- 
acters. So it is somewhat less certain than it 
otherwise would be that the unit characters of the 
[257] 
