LUTHER BURBANK 



fast lines between the different species as com- 

 monly classified. 



This belief has undergone a radical change, in 

 recent years, and the many combinations of widely 

 different species made on my Sebastopol grounds 

 have had at least a share in broadening and clari- 

 fying the views of the classifiers. 



"Well, what kind of a tree do you think this is?" 

 I asked a moment later. 



"Why, a plum, to be sure." 



"Please examine more closely, professor," I 

 requested. "This leaf looks to me more like an 

 apricot than like a plum !" 



"Yes yes. I see now it is; it is surely an apri- 

 cot the leaf, though differing from most of the 

 apricots, is certainly an apricot leaf." 



"Now look again, carefully look at the foliage, 

 bark, branches; and now let us examine the fruit. 

 Then tell me what you really think it is." 



After a long and thorough examination, I heard 

 the reluctant decision : "Well, it surely is what you 

 claim it to be a cross between the plum and the 

 apricot. I never thought it could be made." 



I told him I had hundreds of others of different 

 sizes, shapes, and qualities. 



"Show me another quick! quick!" 



And I showed him not merely one other, but a 

 score or two, to his added mystification. 



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