LUTHER BURBANK 



An experiment perhaps even bolder was made 

 at about the time of my experience with the 

 hybrid dewberries. This was the hybridization of 

 the strawberry and the raspberry. 



The attempt to cross plants of such unlike 

 appearance would seem to most experimenters 

 absurd. Yet the cross was successfully effected. 

 The raspberry was selected as the pistillate plant, 

 and pollen was applied from whatever strawberry 

 was at hand. It was impossible to choose as to 

 the latter point, for the strawberry is for the most 

 part out of season when the raspberry blossoms. 

 I had to use such material as I could find. 



The poUenation proved effective, and the rasp- 

 berry plant produced a full crop of fruit. 



There is no very marked immediate efifect 

 observable from such a hybridization. The pulp 

 of the berry seems not to be affected; but the 

 essential seeds within the berry are enormously 

 modified, as the sequel showed. For when the 

 raspberry seeds were planted in the greenhouse, 

 the young hybrid plants that came up in profusion 

 had all the appearance of ordinary strawberry 

 plants. No one who inspected them casually 

 would suspect their hybrid origin. 



The raspberry, the pistillate parent on which 

 the seeds had grown, has leaves with five leaflets. 

 But there was no leaf of this character among all 



[290] 



