298 Plant Life and Evolution 



ries, plums, pecans, cranberries, etc. Some of the 

 European fruits, as for instance grapes and goose- 

 berries, do not thrive in the Eastern United States 

 largely on account of diseases to which they are 

 very susceptible. Our native vines and gooseberries, 

 while much inferior to the European varieties, are 

 practically immune to these diseases, and have 

 through crossing and selection given rise to very 

 much improved varieties, which yield a fairly satis- 

 factory substitute for the more tender European 

 sorts. 



Much attention has been given of late years to 

 the development of new varieties by crossing and 

 selection. In this connection the work of Luther 

 Burbank has for several years attracted much at- 

 tention, and deservedly so, although his work has 

 been very much over-exploited by newspapers and 

 cheap magazines, in search of startling novelties. 

 Burbank, through long years of experimentation, 

 combined with an extraordinary natural gift for 

 recognizing the essential characters of the plant with 

 which he is working, has been able to accomplish 

 what look like veritable miracles to the layman. 

 However, most of his results have been obtained by 

 the same methods of crossing and selection which 

 all plant-breeders use. Some of his results 

 are hard to understand, and offer some difficult 

 problems to the student of heredity. Through the 

 labors of Burbank, and other plant-breeders, many 

 new and important varieties of cultivated plants 



