86 LUTHER BURBANK 



ment, and in particular to add a few details that 

 have not hitherto been presented. 



It will be recalled that the little sans noyau, 

 despite its name, was not altogether stoneless, 

 inasmuch as each fruit had a covering of stone 

 more than half way around the kernel ; also that 

 the fruit itself was only about the size of the 

 ordinary cranberry, and was harsh, acrid, and 

 unpalatable. 



Yet when this unpromising fruit was crossed 

 with the French prune, and with numerous other 

 plums and prunes, some of the crossbred seed- 

 lings produced fruit larger than the French 

 prune, and nearly all of the hybrids were su- 

 perior to the wild parent. 



All the seeds of these hybrids were carefully 

 saved and planted. The seedlings were grafted 

 on older trees, and a few seasons later still better 

 ones were obtained; plants bearing larger fruits 

 and many of them showing the tendency to 

 abandon the stone. 



The first generation hybrid seedlings of this 

 type, which were quite numerous, had mostly 

 the French prune for the pistillate parent. 

 Some, however, were from the reciprocal cross. 



Of the latter, the crooked thorny seedlings 

 which indicated that they were not crossed, or 

 had reverted to the wild type, were generally 



