LUTHER BURBANK 



it. These offer special material for further selec- 

 tion, and by combining such selection with skilful 

 hybridizing the plant experimenter should be able 

 to produce an apricot that will stand quite un- 

 rivaled among the stone fruits. 



What the Loquat Offers 



There is another fruit to which reference may 

 be made here perhaps as well as elsewhere. This 

 is the loquat, a plant classified by the botanists as 

 Eriobotyra. 



There are several species sometimes classed as 

 loquats, but the common Japanese loquat is the 

 only one which the botanist places in the genus 

 just named. It is a small, broad-leaved, woolly- 

 branched evergreen, useful not only for orna- 

 mental purposes, but for its fruit which ripens 

 from February to June, growing from blossoms 

 that usually appear in December and January. 



The wild loquat of Japan bears a small fruit 

 about the size of a very large cherry or small 

 plum, nearly all skin and seeds, and outwardly 

 somewhat resembling a small apple or large haw- 

 thorne fruit, except that it is yellowish in color 

 and rusty woolly. 



But there are several improved varieties of 

 fruit, due to selective cultivation. These oftenest 

 bear pear-shaped fruit that is sometimes two and 

 one-half inches in length and t\yo inches in di- 



[264] 



