LUTHER BURBANK 



duced some seedlings of unusual size and good 

 quality. The trees are nearly all resistant to ciu:l- 

 leaf and mildew. As might be expected, the 

 seedlings from succeeding gei^erations differ 

 widely. While nearly all possess one or more 

 desirable qualities, it is rare that any one com- 

 bines enough good qualities to entitle it to special 

 consideration. 



The Union of Peach and -Almond 



Another series of hybridizing experiments, 

 begun about eighteen years ago, used for the 

 original cross the purple-leaved peach and the 

 Languedoc almond. 



In the first and second generations, the four or 

 five thousand seedlings produced had green leaves 

 like the almond. 



In the succeeding generation, however, there 

 appeared a few seedlings having purple leaves 

 suggestive of those of the peach ancestor. A par- 

 ticularly dark one was saved. As is usual with the 

 peach and almond hybrids, this tree was very 

 fertile. One season I obtained more than 500 

 fruits from it. 



In every respect this fruit was intermediate 

 between the peach and the almond. 



About nine-tenths of the seedlings grown from 

 the fruit of this purple-leaved hybrid had purple 

 leaves like the parent plant; most of the others 



[160] 



