LUTHER BURBANK 



It would still be possible, however, to produce 

 new varieties of seedless plums by using the 

 pollen of these varieties to fertilize the flowers of 

 other plums that were stoneless but not seedless. 



The seedlings from such a cross would tend to 

 vary in successive generations, as all hybrids do. 

 A certain number of the offspring of the second 

 and later generations would doubtless be seedless, 

 and it would thus be possible to develop new 

 varieties of seedless fruit from a parent stock that 

 is itself incapable of producing viable seed. 



The stoneless hybrids already produced repre- 

 sent almost every color of the plum — white, pale 

 yellow, orange, scarlet, crimson, violet, deep blue, 

 almost black, striped, spotted, and variously 

 mottled. They vary indefinitely in quality. Some 

 of them are of abnormal size. They ripen from 

 the middle of June until Thanksgiving. 



So the stoneless plum already constitutes a 

 new race having numberless varieties, and the 

 possibilities of further improvement are limitless. 



— In producing stoneless 

 fruits, we are simply 

 helping plants to catch 

 up with evolution. 



