68 LUTHER BURBANK 



maker in six or eight years, has very obvious 

 economic importance. 



THE ROYAL WALNUT 



At about the time the Paradox was produced, 

 I undertook another series of hybridizing experi- 

 ments with walnuts that resulted in a tree 

 scarcely less anomalous. 



These experiments consisted of the mating of 

 the California walnut with the black walnut of 

 the eastern United States. The latter tree pro- 

 duces perhaps the finest cabinet wood grown in 

 America, but it has almost disappeared from our 

 eastern forests owing to the rapacity and lack of 

 foresight of the lumberman. The California 

 and eastern walnuts are rather closely related, 

 yet the divergence is sufficient to give the 

 hybrid a character markedly different from 

 either parent. 



In some respects this hybrid, which was 

 christened the "Royal," showed characteristics 

 analogous to the Paradox. It had the same 

 tendency to extraordinary rapid growth, and in 

 subsequent generations it showed to a certain 

 extent the same tendency to produce a varied 

 company of dwarf and of giant progeny. There 

 was also a considerable variation in foliage, 

 although not the extraordinary diversity shown 



