172 LUTHER BURBANK 



suggested as combining the traits of the various 

 parent plans. Most of them were absolutely 

 thornless. Many grew upright like the apple 

 tree, showing nothing of the drooping tendency 

 even of the raspberry, much less the trailing 

 habit of the dewberry. The leaves were gener- 

 ally quite smooth, some resembling those of the 

 pear, others being partially trifoliolate, and most 

 of them assuming strange and unusual forms. 



When this motley company came to the time 

 of blooming, there was still another surprise, for 

 the flowers were as varied as the foliage. Some 

 of the blossoms were crimson in color, and half 

 as large as an apple blossom; some were pink 

 and quite small; others were white. A large 

 number of plants, however, did not bloom at all, 

 although they were attentively cared for during 

 several years, and were otherwise normal. 



From these strange hybrids I thought it 

 barely possible to raise at least one or two 

 remarkable varieties of fruit. I had hopes even 

 of being able to produce something of real value, 

 at any rate from the second generation. 



But when it came time for the fruits to ripen, 

 another surprise awaited me; only two plants 

 out of the five thousand produced a single fruit. 

 One of these was a plant somewhat resembling 

 a raspberry bush, and this produced a number 



