ACHIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE 

 THE PLUMCOT 



A CROSS WHICH MAN SAID COULD NEVER 

 BE MADE 



SEVERAL years ago a party of noted 

 scientists from various parts of the world 

 were visiting my farms. 



I asked one of them an American, then 

 known to the public as a compiler of various 

 books on horticultural subjects to come over 

 to another part of the grounds and see one of 

 my crosses between the plum and the apricot; 

 one of my first crosses then just ripening. 



"There can be no such fruit," my visitor 

 declared. "The two species are wholly different 

 in all respects. Everybody knows it is impos- 

 sible to cross two trees of such widely varying 

 types as the plum and the apricot/' 



I was not surprised to hear him make this 

 statement. For at that time very few biologists 

 and in particular few technical botanists had 

 quite given up the notion that there are hard and 



181 



