SUMMARY OF THE WORK 315 



for novelties; and the fruits and flowers pro- 

 duced at Santa Rosa were novelties in the 

 most comprehensive and exacting sense of 

 the word. 



They were not merely new varieties that dif- 

 fered by a shade from old varieties. They were 

 new forms produced by the combination of dif- 

 ferent species, often of species brought together 

 from different hemispheres; and they were so 

 radically different from the forms previously in 

 existence that many of them would without hesi- 

 tation be pronounced new species by any com- 

 petent botanist were they discovered in the wild 

 state, or were their precise manner of origin 

 unknown. 



But mere novelty by no means fully explained 

 the interest of the orchardist in the new products. 

 In addition to novelty the hybrid fruits and 

 flowers had qualities of excellence that gave them 

 instant appeal. 



The resources of the now familiar method of 

 half-tone illustration, at that time quite new, had 

 been utilized to show the exact appearance of the 

 new fruits and flowers, and so far as possible the 

 reproductions were made of exact life size, in a 

 good many cases one or both of the parent forms 

 being reproduced beside their hybrid offspring, 

 to point the contrast. 



