BURBAXK PLUMS 343 



achieved when these Japanese plums were allied 

 with other species from different parts of the 

 globe would have settled the matter forever in 

 my mind. 



For when these immigrants from the Orient 

 were mated with European and American stock, 

 I saw produced "spontaneous" variations from 

 the ancestral type of either parent in endless 

 profusion just such material as would be avail- 

 able in a wild stock for the operation of natural 

 selection. 



And ultimately, as will be told more at length 

 in another connection, when I made still wider 

 hybridizations, in which the apricot w r as one mem- 

 ber of the alliance, there was produced a new 

 plant so widely divergent from either of its 

 parent forms that few botanists if any would be 

 disposed to deny it the rank and title of a new 

 species. 



I refer of course to the plumcot. 



Having been, as it were, the agent of nature 

 in the development of this new species, I could 

 never in future question the method through 

 which species are commonly produced. 



This method was applied in very numerous 

 other cases with corresponding results, as will 

 appear in due course; but for the moment the 

 plums have the platform and we are chiefly con- 



