LUTHER BURBANK 



vided the plant experimenter does not elect to 

 disturb its fixity by a new hybridization. 



The result, up to date, is that after twenty 

 years of selective breeding along these lines, the 

 descendants of the little North Carolina dewberry 

 (who are descendants also, of course, of various 

 and sundry berries of more aristocratic bearing) 

 constitute a race of blackberries growing on large, 

 well-shaped, spreading bushes that are absolutely 

 thornless. The fruit itself is a large, handsome, 

 glossy black berry, of excellent flavor, profusely 

 clustered — a fruit that makes inviting appeal to 

 the wayfarer and which will exact no penalty in 

 the way of scratches from those who gather it. 



I have told thus at length tiie story of the 

 thornless blackberry, because the development of 

 this fruit quite eclipses all my earlier work with 

 the blackberries, and makes the record of the de- 

 velopment of the thorny varieties, however excel- 

 lent their fruit, seem an almost archaic per- 

 formance. 



It must be recalled, however, that the present 

 thornless blackberries of quality could not have 

 been secured so expeditiously had not material 

 been at hand for the hybridizing experiments 

 through which size and flavor were bred into the 

 fruit until, as just related, the perfected thornless 

 varieties were developed. 



[22] 



