BURBANK'S HORTICULTURAL NOVELTIES 203 



his hybrid family is the result of the crosses of six or eight 

 or perhaps more original species, he does not care whether a 

 given individual of that family has all those parents in its 

 ancestry or only a few of them. The visible features of 

 the individual hybrid often point to an origin from definite 

 parents among the group. It may have the foliage of one 

 form, the branching of another, and these combined with 

 the flowers or fruits or the productiveness of two or more 

 others. Its pedigree may thus be guessed at, and for ah 

 practical purposes this is quite suthcient. But in most of 

 these cases a scientific treatment is excluded, since exactly 

 that which we should want to prove, is simply assumed on 

 the ground of relatively loose probabihties. 



What the breeder is very careful about is the choice of 

 the starting points for his work. Species, elementary species, 

 varieties, individual excellences, have to be tested with the 

 utmost care before being aUowed an introduction into the 

 strain. For the crossing with indifferent types would in- 

 crease the work without affording any real chance of pro- 

 gress, and species possessed of some undesirable character 

 might, of course, transmit this to the hybrids, as well as 

 any favorable quahty. They must be excluded at the out- 

 set, and this requisite is of so essential a nature that it may 

 be said that half of the ultimate result depends upon the 

 initial choice and only the other half on the success of the 

 ensuing hybridizations. 



This rule is often stated by saying that half the battle is 

 won by the first selection. From it we may deduce a con- 

 firmation of our conclusion in the last chapter, viz., that the 

 results of hybridizations consist in the combinations of 

 given characters, and not in the accidental production of 

 new ones. All depends upon what is already present, 

 since simply the new grouping is the source of the almost 

 inexhaustible variabihty. 



