LUTHER BURBANK 



many other trees and plants of various kinds. But 

 I recall that the variations among the chestnuts, 

 and also among hickories and shell-barks, made a 

 very vivid impression on my mind. It seemed 

 strange that trees obviously of the same kind 

 should show such diversity as to their fruit. 



When, at a later period, I began my experi- 

 ments in California, I recalled the variable chest- 

 nuts, and it occurred to me that a plant showing 

 such inherent tendency to vary should afford an 

 unusual opportunity for development for by this 

 time I had come to appreciate the value of varia- 

 tion as the foundation for the operations of the 

 plant experimenter. 



But I had conceived the idea also as our 

 earlier studies have shown that there would be 

 very great advantage in hybridizing the best 

 native species of plants with plants of foreign 

 origin. And I had the chestnuts in mind among 

 others when I sent to Japan and Italy and the east- 

 ern states for new plants with which to operate. 

 So the very first lot of plants that came to me from 

 Japan (in November, 1884), included twenty-five 

 nuts that I find listed in a memorandum as "mon- 

 ster" chestnuts. The same shipment, it may be of 

 interest to recall, included loquats and persim- 

 mons with which some interesting experiments 

 were made; pears, peaches, and plums of which 



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