FRUIT IMPROVEMENT 95 



seed is the only really essential part of the fruit. 

 All of the embellishment of juicy pulp and 

 highly pigmented skin is but the lure for man or 

 other animals put forth by the plant on behalf of 

 the seed, in the interests of self-preservation. 



The really essential part of the entire structure 

 is but an infinitesimal cell lodged at the heart of 

 each kernel of the seed. 



Indeed, we may, with the aid of the micro- 

 scope, go even one step farther and say that the 

 nucleus of a single cell, born of the union of the 

 nuclei of two germ cells, is the really important 

 part not merely of the fruit but of the tree on 

 which it grows. 



For within the infinitesimal structure of the 

 nucleus, by the most mystifying of all nature's 

 feats of jugglery, are lodged those hereditary 

 factors or determiners that will ultimately trans- 

 mit the traits of the ancestral tree to the tree of 

 fihe future. 



In the widest sense it is true that the sole pur- 

 pose of the entire plant is to produce a certain 

 number of these germinal nuclei, each represent- 

 ing the union of a pollen grain with an ovule; 

 each carefully incased in the structure that we 

 call a seed; and each capable of reproducing, 

 with sundry modifications, the characteristics of 

 the parent plant, or, in a profounder view, the 



