ON THE POSSIBILITIES 



Possibly as striking an illustration of this as 

 could be chosen is one which made itself evident 

 in the plumcot. 



So intent was Mr. Burbank on his purpose of 

 combining two species, the plum and the apricot — 

 so single-minded was his idea of producing a fruit 

 which should reflect its double parentage in flesh 

 and flavor— that he lost sight of some of the 

 incidental possibilities of such a combination. 



The cross having been made, however, he set 

 about to study the other new characters which the 

 combination showed. 



Some of these were recognized as being of 

 little practical value. 



The foliage of the plumcot tree, for example, 

 does not necessarily resemble the plum or the 

 apricot, being intermediate and representing a 

 perfect blend. Though, it may be noted in passing, 

 the foliage of a cross or hybrid often takes on the 

 characteristics of either one parent or the other, 

 or may consist of varicolored leaves, or may even 

 present leaves of two distinct kinds. This is an 

 interesting and important subject which will be 

 clearly illustrated with direct color photographs 

 later. 



Finding the plumcot foliage a blend, Mr. Bur- 

 bank was not surprised to discover that the root 

 of the plumcot tree resembled in color neither the 



[247] 



