i88 PLANT-BREEDING 



characters produces nothing really new, and since this is 

 the ordinary case in horticultural crossing, the question 

 naturally arises whether, besides them, from time to time, 

 new elementary characters may arise by hybridization. 



Burbank's experiments contain a number of cases in 

 which the appearance of actual novelty is quite striking. 

 Therefore I have discussed this question with him fully, and 

 the result is the conviction that the novelties in question are 

 only apparent, and that the real work of the breeder is not 

 the casual or accidental production of such, but a systematic 

 search for rare and as yet unnoticed, or perhaps, even for- 

 gotten qualities. It is based on his power to appreciate the 

 industrial value of characters which formerly had been 

 simply overlooked or considered of no promise in a commer- 

 cial direction. 



Before considering Burbank's results in this line of facts, 

 a few other illustrative examples may be adduced. One 

 or two decades ago, a considerable number of varieties of 

 double-flowered lilacs had been produced by Lemoine at 

 Nancy, France. All of them were hybrids, and as such 

 were very ornamental shrubs, with large clusters of bright 

 flowers, which excelled the older kinds by flowering during 

 a noticeably longer time. The double flowers, however, 

 were no result of the crossing but had been introduced as 

 such into the group of the ordinary varieties, by crossing 

 them with an old and forgotten double- flowered form, which 

 of itself was hardly ornamental on account of its small flowers. 

 It was the Syringa azurea plena, and the real source of 

 Lemoine's enormous success in this case was his idea of buy- 

 ing a tree of this variety and of starting a series of crosses 

 with it. 



Another instance is the seedless apple, which is now being 

 introduced into the trade as young grafted trees, which are 

 expected to exercise large influence on the whole culture of 



