32 LUTHER BURBANK 



The original Santa Rosa, however, was grown 

 from seed, and of course, it was necessary in per- 

 fegting the varieties to grow successive genera- 

 tions in the same way. 



The parent tree was a walnut growing in 

 San Francisco. It bore the most valuable nuts 

 of the kind that had ever been seen in Califor- 

 nia. Mr. Alfred Wright first called my atten- 

 tion to this tree about thirty years ago. I found 

 that it bore not only abundantly but regularly, 

 and that the nuts were of exceedingly fine qual- 

 ity, and of relatively thin shell, their chief fault 

 being that the two halves would sometimes sepa- 

 rate slightly, leaving the meat exposed to the air, 

 so that the meat did not keep as well as if in a 

 thoroughly sealed shell. 



The original tree was destroyed soon after my 

 attention was called to it, to make room for a 

 street, but I had secured nuts and had a colony 

 of seedlings under inspection. Among these 

 there was a great variation, giving me good op- 

 portunity for selection. Selection being made 

 with reference to all the desirable qualities of 

 the walnut in addition to thinness of shell, pres- 

 ently there was developed a variety that seemed 

 worthy of introduction, and cions and trees from 

 this were sent out under the name of Santa 

 Rosa. 



A Bur. Vol. 8 



