96 LUTHER BURBANK 



blended characteristics of the entire ancestral 

 race which the plant represents. 



When we consider the seed in this way it does 

 not seem strange that all the resources of nature 

 should concentrate on the development of the 

 fruit structure in which the all-important seed or 

 cluster of seeds find lodgment. And by the same 

 token it is comprehensible that nature will hold 

 to the seed with the most unwavering persistency. 



And so it is not strange that the plant experi- 

 menter should be able to alter the size and tex- 

 ture and quality of the fruit pulp far more 

 readily than he can modify the core or stone. 



Yet from man's standpoint this inevitable cen- 

 tral structure, forming the heart of every orchard 

 fruit, is a conspicuous detriment. And it is al- 

 together desirable that fruits should be developed 

 in which the stony or fibrous covering of the seed 

 is eliminated, or in which the substance of the 

 seed itself has been substituted by juicy tissues. 



Everyone knows that this much desired modi- 

 fication has been effected, or all but effected, in 

 the case of the so-called navel orange. An 

 accidentally discovered mutant, doubtless a 

 pathological specimen, was seized on by some 

 keen-eyed observer in Brazil and has been widely 

 disseminated by grafting. There are also seed- 

 less grapes. 



