LUTHER BURBANK 



between the foliage or stem or buds of the seedling 

 and the qualities of its future fruit as regards the 

 matter of size. 



So it may quite conceivably happen that the 

 experimenter, using his best endeavors to make 

 right selection, picks out for preservation, among 

 the ten or twelve chosen out of the thousands, in- 

 dividuals that (though they have only large-fruited 

 ancestors in the two generations back of them), 

 yet themselves are pure recessives (bb) as regards 

 that quality, bearing no factor of large fruit what- 

 ever. 



And in that event the experimenter will be con- 

 fronted, after another two-year or three-year in- 

 terval of waiting, with an array of fruit, borne on 

 the branches of his long-nurtured and carefully 

 selected cions, not a single specimen of which is 

 other than insignificant in size. 



Other good qualities the fruit may have. But 

 in the essential quality that we are keeping under 

 consideration it is utterly lacking. In the matter 

 of size it reverts to the recessive member of its 

 great-grandparental ancestry. And so its telltale 

 progeny, hanging there among the luscious fruits 

 of surrounding branches (of other lineage), are 

 like the black sheep in a patrician family. 



Not an enheartening experiment, thus far, for 

 the would-be developer of a colossal cherry, 



[86] 



