LUTHER BURBANK 



supposing that I can build such a fruit-structure 

 as I have conceived. 



And here the answer is supplied solely by 

 the use of imagination in connection with the 

 inspection of existing races of cherries. I examine 

 the best fruits already in the orchard and find 

 that there is a large measure of variation between 

 the cherries grown on ditferent trees, as well as 

 between the individual specimens on the same 

 tree. 



In imagination I look back far into the past 

 and inquire as to the racial history of this fruit. 



I am led to believe that certain ^mong the 

 ancestors of the cherry have grown in semi- 

 tropical climates, and I know that even in the 

 present day there are species, doubtless sprung 

 from the same original stock, that grow far up 

 into Canada. 



I ask myself why it is that the cherry shows 

 such a propensity to vary, and I find an answer 

 in the assumption that the existing cultivated races 

 carry in their veins, so to speak — that is to say in 

 their germ plasm — hereditary tendencies drawn 

 from varied strains of a mixed ancestry. 



And I feel well assured that it should be 

 possible, by accentuating the tendency to varia- 

 tion through further hybridizing, and by careful 

 selection, to combine and bring out in a more or 



[14] 



