LUTHER BURBANK 



naturally appeal are chiefly natives of Asia Minor, 

 Palestine, and Persia, and while they might serve 

 a useful purpose, if hybridized with races now 

 growing in America, in giving a tendency to varia- 

 bility and perhaps also an added virility, it is 

 hardly to be expected that they bear hereditary 

 factors that would greatly aid in the particular 

 matter under consideration, because of the warm 

 climate to which they and their ancestors have 

 been habituated. 



Nevertheless, the experiment is well worth 

 making for we know that there are latent quali- 

 ties in the germ plasm of almost every race of 

 plants that are revealed only through hybridiza- 

 tion, and the presence of which would otherwise 

 be quite unsuspected. 



In any event there are differences to be ob- 

 served between individual apricot trees as to the 

 relative hardiness of their blossoms. So material 

 is at hand, with or without hybridization, from 

 which to begin the work of selection. 



Doubtless this work might be carried forward 

 much more rapidly if we had a clearer knowledge 

 as to what the precise anatomical conditions are 

 that are associated with extreme sensitiveness of 

 the blossoms. 



We know that some blossoms (those of certain 

 Japanese plums, for example) may retain their 



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