THE TOMATO 169 



some crossbreed varieties; and, as has been 

 pointed out, I was hybridizing tomatoes, pota- 

 toes, beans, and other plants even at that time. 



The lot of seed thus brought to California 

 included some seeds of the tomato. As was cus- 

 tomary in those days, this seed had simply been 

 pressed out of the fruit, and dried on a piece of 

 paper with the surrounding mucilage still cling- 

 ing to it. 



Nineteen years afterward I planted some of 

 these seeds, being interested to see whether they 

 retained their power of germination. Somewhat 

 to my surprise, almost every seed germinated. 

 But the majority of the seeds did nothing more 

 than form cotyledons, lacking the central bud 

 for further development. There were a few ex- 

 ceptional plants, however, among the large com- 

 pany — perhaps altogether two dozen — that con- 

 tinued their growth and in due course fruited. 



The fruit of some of these plants grown from 

 nineteen-year-old seed was sent to an eastern 

 horticultural journal, whose editor commented 

 on the fact that seed kept for this long period 

 still produced fruit quite equal to anything that 

 had been developed in the intervening nineteen 

 years. 



In planting the nineteen-year-old seed, I re- 

 tained a certain quantity from the same lot for a 



