196 LUTHER BURBANK 



leaves like the parent plant; most of the others 

 had leaves of pure green, but a small proportion 

 showed leaves of an intermediate color. 



Looking at the row of seedlings from a short 

 distance one would hardly perceive anything but 

 a line of deep crimson or purple. Some of the 

 individual seedlings were much darker than the 

 parent, being fully as dark as the original pur- 

 ple-leaved peach. Most of the seedlings resem- 

 ble the peach in foliage, but some have longer and 

 more pointed leaves like the almond parent, and 

 these generally grow more rapidly than the 

 others and have a more upright appearance, in 

 this respect also resembling the almond. 



Although the exact parentage of the hybrids 

 of the later generations of this combination of 

 the almond and the purple-leaved peach was not 

 traceable, and although no close record was kept 

 of precise numbers, it will be obvious that the 

 result of the first cross showed that, as between 

 green leaves and purple leaves, in the relations 

 of these two species, the influence of the green 

 leaf was prepotent or dominant, as would of 

 course be expected as green is the normal color 

 of leaves, and purple exceptional. 



The reappearance of the purple leaf in later 

 generations is, of course, precisely what would be 

 expected of a recessive character. 



