332 LUTHER BURBANK 



of the characteristics of each; and told further 

 that this new hybrid, far from being sterile, has 

 such fertility that it ripens its main crop of 

 berries long before most kinds of raspberries and 

 blackberries commence to bloom, and continues 

 to bear more or less berries all summer. 



So the evidence that hybrid offspring of two 

 species may be fertile and may thus offer 

 material for the action of natural selection in 

 the creation of new species appeared doubly 

 demonstrable. 



It is probable, then, that the announcement of 

 the development of the Primus berry would have 

 aroused no small measure of interest among 

 practical plant breeders and theoretical stu- 

 dents of evolution, even had it been made by 

 itself as a single and isolated experiment in 

 hybridization. 



But the record of the Primus berry was accom- 

 panied by similar records of an entire company 

 of new hybrid blackberries and raspberries. In 

 the same section of "New Creations" that told 

 of the Primus berry, there was the record of an 

 equally remarkable blackberry-raspberry hybrid 

 of an entirely different character, the parents 

 this time being the California dewberry and the 

 well-known Cuthbert raspberry, the latter a 

 native of England. 



