34 LUTHER BURBANK 



COMBINING WITH THE JAPANESE WALNUT 



The Paradox has extraordinary qualities of 

 growth, but it is almost sterile, producing only a 

 few nuts on an entire tree, and these nuts of the 

 poorest quality. 



Another hybridizing experiment that had 

 great interest was that in which the Persian wal- 

 nut was crossed with the Japanese walnut, 

 known as Juglans Sieboldii. The Persian wal- 

 nut in these crosses was used as the pistillate 

 parent. 



The first generation hybrids of this cross show 

 a combination of qualities of the two parent 

 species as regards the nuts, which are not borne 

 abundantly. The foliage is very much larger, 

 however, than that of either species, the bark is 

 white, and the tree itself is of enormously en- 

 hanced growth. It probably makes about twice 

 as much wood in a given period as either of the 

 parent species. The leaves are quite hairy on 

 both sides, even more so than those of the Japa- 

 nese parent. The branches are inclined to droop. 



The nuts of the Japanese walnut have an ex- 

 ceedingly hard shell. The meat of the nut, how- 

 ever, is delicious, perhaps equaling that of any 

 other nut, with the exception of some varieties 

 of the pecan. But it is very difficult to get the 



