LUTHER BURBANK 



was produced by selection, from seeds imported 

 from India. 



Should you wish to stimulate further variation, 

 however, you may practice cross-pollenizing. The 

 method has been explained in connection with 

 orchard fruits, and need not be repeated here. 

 The only essential, it will be recalled, is the trans- 

 fer of pollen from one flower to the pistil of an- 

 other at a time when the pistil is mature, or ap- 

 proaching maturity. 



The fruit in itself that grows from the flower 

 thus cross-fertilized will not reveal the character 

 of the pollen parent. If, for example, pollen has 

 been brought from a blackberry flower to fertilize 

 a raspberry, the raspberry fruit will be' the same 

 in appearance as it would have been if the flower 

 had been fertilized with pollen from another rasp- 

 berry. 



But the seeds in the fruit will be profoundly 

 changed in nature, though in no way altered in 

 exterior appearance, and the vines that grow from 

 them next season may show at once the evidence 

 of their hybridity. Just what will be the char- 

 acter of the fruit they will bear can never be 

 predicted, and this uncertainty gives added in- 

 terest to the experiment. 



As a rule, it is well in hybridizing two plants to 

 make what is called a reciprocal cross that is to 

 say, use pollen from each plant to fertilize flowers 

 of the other plant. But it is the general experi- 

 ence that the hybrid offspring have the same char- 

 acteristics whichever way the cross is made. 



[88] 



