FOUR BURBANK PRUNES 69 



From the standpoint of protection and repro- 

 duction of the almond, the clinging husk is an 

 advantage rather than an objection. The seed 

 of the almond will germinate after being thor- 

 oughly dried. It needs no flesh to tide it over, 

 as do the pulpy stone fruits. But for man's use 

 the clinging husk is a disadvantage, and the cling- 

 stone habit has been eliminated in all the best 

 cultivated varieties of the almond. 



In the plum a similar change has been devel- 

 oped by selection. The meat does not cling to 

 the stone in many cultivated varieties. In the 

 almond the quality of the meat has been greatly 

 improved, while the husk or immediate covering 

 has not been improved in any respect, as no use 

 is made of it. 



Even a freestone fruit does not start as a free- 

 stone, but the flesh tends to leave the stone as 

 the fruit approaches maturity, very much as a 

 leaf ripens away from its supporting stem in the 

 fall when it has performed its annual function, 

 or the fruit parts from the tree when it is fully 

 ripe. The flesh parts from the stone by a nat- 

 ural process. This leaves the stone either "free" 

 or partially free. 



Some individual trees among a lot of seed- 

 lings chestnuts in particular will hold their 

 leaves persistently all winter (this persistence is 



