INTERESTING FAILURES 173 



of ill-tasting berries of a yellowish-brown color. 

 The other bush produced insignificant fruits of 

 an orange-yellow color. 



Though unpromising in themselves, these 

 fruits were most carefully watched and guarded, 

 for I felt convinced that possibilities of strange 

 variation were contained in them, if only a few 

 seedlings could be produced from them. But 

 when the fruits were fully matured I examined 

 the seeds and found all of them hollow. They 

 were nothing but shells, containing no kernel. 



So by no possibility could I get a single seed- 

 ling for a succeeding generation. 



Some of the most curious of the plants w^ere 

 preserved for two or three seasons, but they 

 proved as unproductive as before; and as the 

 ground was needed for other purposes I felt 

 constrained to destroy the entire company of 

 curious hybrids. But in all my experience I 

 never destroyed a lot of plants with more sin- 

 cere regret. 



An experiment perhaps even bolder was made 

 at about the time of this experience with the 

 hybrid dewberries. This was the hybridization 

 of the strawberry and the raspberry. 



The attempt to cross plants of such very 

 unlike appearance would seem to most experi- 

 menters absurd. Yet the cross was successfully 



