46 LUTHER BURBANK 



men ; perhaps it was more particularly needed as 

 a protection against climatic conditions, to insure 

 preservation during semi- Arctic winters; or to 

 keep vitality in the kernel during protracted 

 periods of drought, since, unlike most other 

 fruits, the seeds will rarely germinate if fully 

 dried. 



As to all this we can only surmise. But we 

 may have full assurance that the thick, stonelike 

 seed cover served a useful purpose, else it would 

 never have been developed and so persistently 

 preserved in all the divergent races of stone 

 fruits that were evolved under the new conditions 

 of southwestern Asia and southern Europe to 

 which these fruits found their way. 



The roving tribes of Arabia developed a tender 

 modified form of the fruit adapted for preserva- 

 tion by drying, and now termed the apricot. 

 Other people consciously or unconsciously se- 

 lected and developed the almond; and yet others 

 the juicy and luscious peach; while the plum ran 

 wild and put forth a galaxy of hardy offspring 

 that made their way to the north of Europe and 

 also, along some now obliterated channels, to the 

 Western Hemisphere. 



But each and all of these descendants main- 

 tained, and some of them like the peach intensi- 

 fied and elaborated, the unique characteristic of a 



