LUTHER BURBANK 



Japanese and Korean varieties with large bright 

 colored fruits and delightful flavors; the apricot 

 plum from China, the purple-leaved plum from 

 France and the cerasifera, which has been grown 

 mostly for grafting stocks. 



Although some of these species are insignifi- 

 cant in themselves, their characters by combina- 

 tion and careful selection have had a share in 

 making fruits of the rarest qualities. 



And the work, notwithstanding its notable re- 

 sults, is only at its beginning. 



THE MYSTERY OF THE BUD 



In completing this outline of the methods of 

 plum development, let us now consider a little 

 more in detail an aspect of heredity which con- 

 cerns equally all our other cultivated orchard 

 fruits, and which must seem mysterious to every- 

 one who gives the subject a moment's considera- 

 tion. I refer to the familiar but extraordinary fact 

 that whereas the bud or cion of a given tree will 

 reproduce the fruiting qualities of the parent with 

 the utmost fidelity, yet the seedlings grown from 

 the fruit may have the widest diversity. 



It has been pointed out that you need not 

 hybridize the orchard fruits in order to get new 

 varieties. The seed of almost any plum tree, for 

 example, will give you seedlings a plenty that are 

 different from the parent tree. 



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