STONELESS PRUNES 83 



any number of generations of selective effort on 

 the part of man. 



Such a lapse was made, we do not know just 

 when, in the case of a minor variety of plum that 

 chanced to grow in central Europe. Through 

 this momentary lapse in nature's memory, this 

 plant found itself with a seed for which the cus- 

 tomary stony covering had been nearly half for- 

 gotten. Only about half remained of the shell 

 that to plum seeds in general is as a veritable 

 armor plate. 



The plant that suffered this strange mishap 

 was, as the reader already knows, a little French 

 bullace of small significance, known as the sans 

 noyau. Of course we must not be supposed to 

 imply that the relative importance of this partic- 

 ular member of the plum tribe had anything to 

 do with its mishap. The laws of heredity apply 

 quite as rigidly to the most insignificant as to the 

 most important of plants. Indeed, it is scarcely 

 within man's province to decide as to which 

 plants are really insignificant and which impor- 

 tant in the scheme of things. 



But at least it may be affirmed that, according 

 to ordinary human standards, the little bullace 

 was of a most inferior type. Yet, paradoxically 

 enough, it became, in virtue of its misfortune, the 

 most important race of plums in the world. 



