240 LUTHER BURBANK 



intelligent selection of the trees that bear the 

 best fruit, with attempts to raise seedlings from 

 these trees and thus secure races of good fruit 

 bearers, has been practiced generation after 

 generation. 



Moreover a certain amount of cross-pollen- 

 izing between allied races of palms has doubtless 

 taken place without the agency of man, and 

 so it is all but certain that the different palms 

 under cultivation bear mixed racial strains, some- 

 what as do the different races of orchard 

 fruits and cultivated plants of temperate 

 climates. 



It is quite to be expected, then, that the palms 

 grown from the seed should show a good deal of 

 variation. 



That such is really the case is made obvious to 

 anyone who attempts to raise them. The date 

 palm, for example, may readily enough be 

 grown from the seed, for the seeds germinate 

 readily, though slowly. But the tests have 

 shown that the progeny of a date palm bearing 

 fruit of the best quality cannot be depended upon 

 to transmit the characteristics of the parent with 

 a high degree of certainty. 



So it is necessary to grow the young trees 

 from suckers if the strain of the parent is to be 

 perpetuated accurately. 



