THE WHITE BLACKBERRY 



These were doubtless the first truly white 

 blackberries of which there is any record. But 

 there were only four or five bushes bearing these 

 white berries in an entire generation comprising 

 several hundred individual bushes, all having pre- 

 cisely the same ancestry. 



From among the four or five bushes, the one 

 showing a combination of the best qualities was 

 selected and multiplied, until its descendants 

 constituted a race of white blackberries that 

 breeds absolutely true as regards the white fruit 

 Now BREEDS TRUE FROM SEED 



The descendants of this particular bush were 

 widely scattered and passed out of my control. 

 But subsequently from the same stock, I developed 

 other races, and finally perfected, merely by selec- 

 tion and interbreeding from this same stock, a 

 race of white blackberries that breeds true from 

 the seed, showing no tendency whatever to revert 

 to the black grand-parental type. 



This is, in short, a fruit which if found in the 

 state of nature would unhesitatingly be pro- 

 nounced a distinct species. Its fruit is not only 

 snowy white in color, but large and luscious, com- 

 parable in the latter respect to the Lawton berry 

 which was one of its ancestors. 



"Was there ever in nature a berry just like 

 this?" a visitor asked me. 



[47] 



