LUTHER BURBANK 



oecious flowers — that is, flowers of opposite sexes 

 on separate plants — has discouraged a very gen- 

 eral cultivation of the plant. It is necessary to 

 grow both male and female plants to ensure fer- 

 tilization, and fruit growers do not relish the idea 

 of having half their vines unfruitful. 



Nevertheless there was one variety of the Cal- 

 ifornia dewberry, called the Aughinbaugh, which 

 had been under cultivation for several years. This 

 was the one selected for most of my experiments 

 in hybridizing the dewberry; and this plant had 

 a share in the production not only of the Primus 

 berry, but of the even more remarkable Phenom- 

 enal berry to which reference will be made in a 

 moment. 



The cross between the Siberian berry and the 

 California dewberry, from which the Primus 

 sprang, was made without particular difficulty. I 

 had learned by this time that blackberries and 

 raspberries and dewberries could be hybridized 

 almost indiscriminately; and the fact that one of 

 the parents in the present combination had grown 

 originally in Siberia and the other in California 

 offered no barrier to the union. 



With the first lot of seedlings, five hundred or 

 more, from this union of the California dewberry 

 and the Siberian raspberry, some strange speci- 

 mens were revealed. 



[54] 



