LUTHER BURBANK 



Here also there are sharp limits fixed to the 

 feasibility of the grafting method. You may 

 transfer the twig of an apple to the corresponding 

 limb of another apple tree, however widely dif- 

 ferent, with entire facility. You may similarly, 

 although with far less facility, make a graft 

 between twigs of the apple and the pear. In the 

 same way you may combine branches of the 

 different members of the family of stone fruits — 

 plum with apricot, peach with almonds, and the 

 like. But if you attempt to ignore the larger 

 barriers, and strive to graft seed fruit upon stone 

 fruit — apple or pear on plum or peach — ^your 

 effort will result in failure, just as Dr. Carrel's 

 experiments resulted in failure when he attempted 

 to transpose the organs of cat and dog. 



It would be interesting if Dr. Carrel were to 

 extend his experiments so as to test the possi- 

 bilities of transposing the organs of different 

 species within a family — say from wolf or fox to 

 the dog, or from lynx or leopard to the cat. Here, 

 to judge from our experiments with plants, the 

 probability of success would be far greater. 



At all events, we are commonly able to make 

 such grafts as we choose between different species 

 of the same plant genus; and we may reasonably 

 infer that the same thing might be possible in the 

 case of animals. 



[148] 



