THE CHESTNUT 75 



is \Me bur itself. A few of these hybrid seed- 

 lings were wholly spineless, the covering being 

 as smooth as that of the walnut. In the wild 

 state, the chestnut needs a spiny bur to protect 

 it from squirrels and birds. It has developed this 

 protective covering through natural selection, 

 just as the walnut has developed its thick coat 

 filled with bitter astringent juices. 



The new partially spineless varieties have been 

 developed merely by selection from a hybrid seed- 

 ling that produced nuts showing a tendency to 

 have fewer spines than ordinarily. Of course the 

 tendency to vary in this regard was accentuated 

 by hybridization as were other tendencies. Or, 

 stated otherwise and a little more technically, the 

 hybridization has made possible the segregation 

 of hereditary characteristics, bringing to the sur- 

 face factors for spinelessness that no doubt have 

 been transmitted as recessive traits for perhaps 

 thousands of generations. 



No doubt difficulties will be involved in per- 

 fecting a race of chestnuts with smooth burs 

 similar to those that attend the development of 

 the thornless blackberry and the spineless cac- 

 tus. But there is reason to expect that the same 

 measure of success will be attained with the 

 chestnut that was attained with the other spine 

 bearers. 



