ON THE CHERRY 



sider only a single quality in detail, keeping in the 

 background of our minds the idea that the actual 

 experimenter is at all times considering almost 

 innumerable other qualities as well. 



The one quality that we will consider at the 

 moment is, let us say, the matter of size. We wish, 

 for some special purpose, to develop a cherry that 

 shall be a giant among cherries, yet which of 

 course shall combine size with quality. 



Now we have at hand a cherry that bears very 

 large fruit of poor quality. We have also at hand 

 a tree that bears small fruit of delicious quality. 

 Our first step will be to transfer pollen from the 

 stamens of one of these to the pistils of the other. 

 We carefully mark the limbs bearing the hybrid- 

 ized flowers; and subsequently we .gather the fruit 

 and save the seed and in due course plant it and 

 nurture the seedlings by methods hitherto fully 

 explained. 



So when a year and a half has passed from 

 the inauguration of our experiment we have a 

 row of hybrid seedlings ready for grafting. 



The one thought that is uppermost in our mind, 

 for purposes of the present exposition, is that of 

 securing a plant that will bear fruit of large size. 

 Now we have learned that there are certain cor- 

 relations of parts that will enable the plant ex- 

 perimenter to predict, from the quality of the 



[79] 



