THE ALMOND 827 



acter and that variation takes place in the second 

 generation. 



Looking back now, and being able to check the 

 observation with knowledge gained through 

 noting the effect of hybridizing many hundreds 

 of other species, it is interesting to make in- 

 quiry as to why the first-generation hybrids of 

 the plum and almond showed such anomalous 

 diversity. 



The answer may probably be found in the as- 

 sumption that either one parent or the other was 

 itself a hybrid. Perhaps both parents were 

 hybrids. The fact that almonds are known to 

 cross with the peach and the nectarine — ^to which 

 reference will be made more at length presently 

 — lends color to this assumption. And of course 

 there is no question that the Japanese plums are 

 largely hybridized. In a word, then, the hybrids 

 produced by cross-pollenizing the Japanese plum 

 and the almond were probably in reality second- 

 generation hybrids having the strains of other 

 species than the almond and the Japanese plum 

 in their heredity. 



Be this as it may, the facts as to the curious 

 diversity among the plimi-almond hybrids have 

 more than passing interest. 



It should further be recorded that the diver- 

 sity in size was matched by the wide range of 



