ON THE SPINELESS CACTUS 



plants have come to blossoming time and have 

 been hybridized with the best among their fellows, 

 the seedlings of this second generation will show 

 nimierous individuals that are markedly superior 

 to their parents or their grandparents in regard 

 to all the desired qualities. 



In this second generation (we are not now 

 speaking of the giants and dwarfs referred to 

 earlier in the chapter) is manifested the usual 

 tendency to recombination of the hereditary 

 factors. 



In such companies of seedlings as I developed, 

 where hundreds of thousands of plants are 

 grouped together, one is sure to find at least a 

 few specimens that combine the spineless quality 

 of one remote ancestor with the tendency to large 

 growth of another, the fruiting capacity of a third, 

 and so on. By attentive scrutinizing of the seed- 

 lings, at an early stage of their development, it 

 was found possible to select thus the few individ- 

 uals among the thousands that revealed the best 

 combinations of qualities. 



These are transplanted by themselves, and 

 given every favorable condition to stimulate their 

 growth and development, and finally placed in 

 long rows for field culture, where they are allowed 

 to stand for three or four years, and in the end, if 

 one out of three hundred or four hundred is found 



[205] 



