FRUITS FROM THE TROPICS 309 



done in grafting the orange and various other 

 fruits, and the walnut. 



As just stated, the attempts to hybridize the fig 

 with its relative, the mulberry, have not proved 

 successful. 



But this was probably because I could not give 

 enough time and patient attention to the effort. 

 The two fruits are botanically related and I 

 sometimes think of the fig as a mulberry turned 

 outside in. In Mexico there grows a fig halfway 

 between the two genera that is a flat coin-shaped 

 fig with the flowers exposed on one side. 



It should be possible to effect hybridization 

 between the two species, and perhaps greatly to 

 improve one or both of them; even to develop 

 a wholly new fruit through this union like the 

 plumcot. 



MOVING TROPICAL FRUITS NORTHWARD 



We need not enter into further details in 

 connection with the subject of tropical fruits be- 

 cause I am chiefly concerned in this narrative to 

 tell what I have accomplished in the way of plant 

 development rather than to dwell on unrealized 

 possibilities. But I cannot refrain from urging 

 upon others, who are geographically so located 

 as to bring the tender fruits within the range of 

 their experiments, the desirability of undertak- 



