LUTHER BURBANK 



The foliage of these curious miniature trees 

 was generally a composite, somewhat suggestive 

 of each parent. But in a few instances plants 

 showed leaves much shorter and more rounded 

 than those of either parent, and having the edges 

 coiled back in a semi-circular form. This peculiar 

 coiling of the leaves was probably due to the fact 

 that the mid-rib was inclined to grow more rapidly 

 than the edges of the leaf. 



Unavailing effort was made for two years to 

 stimulate the growth of these interesting hybrids. 



The pure bred Chinese quinces in the same row 

 came in due course to the time of fruiting, but the 

 hybrids showed no propensity to flower, and the 

 tallest were less than a foot in height when their 

 uncrossed relatives had grown to the height of ten 

 or twelve feet. 



Transplanting to orchard soil and special cul- 

 tivation appeared to have no effect on the dwarfs. 

 The experiment was made of grafting some of 

 them into old quince trees of each of the parents. 

 Some of the grafts grew and had rambling, spiral- 

 shaped branches, but they stopped growing when 

 they had attained a length of two or three feet. 

 Grafting appeared to give them somewhat en- 

 hanced powers of growth, but, like the hybrid 

 seedlings from which the cions were cut, they re- 

 mained absolutely sterile. 



[228] 



