THE WINTER RHUBARB 95 



The difference was only a matter of weeks, 

 and was of no greater significance, perhaps, than 

 the observed difference in time of bearing be- 

 tween different varieties of other vegetables and 

 fruits. Everyone knows that there are early and 

 late-bearing varieties of most commonly culti- 

 vated vegetables and fruits summer apples 

 and winter apples furnish a familiar illustration. 



Perhaps some one had discovered a root of 

 rhubarb that chanced to have peculiar qualities 

 of hardiness, and had propagated it until he had 

 a variety that began bearing while the relatively 

 mild New Zealand winter was still in progress. 



But this is only the beginning of the story. 

 The sequel appears when we reflect that the 

 season that constitutes winter in New Zealand is 

 coincident with the summer time of the Northern 

 Hemisphere. 



So when we say that the crimson rhubarb was 

 productive during the winter in its original home, 

 this is equivalent to saying that it had the habit 

 of bearing during our summer time. Trans- 

 planted to California, the New Zealand product 

 continued to put forth its stalks, quite in accord- 

 ance with its hereditary traditions, during what, 

 according to its ancestral calendar, was the win- 

 ter season, although the climatic conditions that 

 now surrounded it were those of summer. 



