LUTHER BURBANK 
had been blended of all the different kinds of 
chestnuts that could be obtained. 
These included, in addition to the Japanese 
species just cited, representatives of the European 
chestnut in several of its varieties—one of which 
came from China—and of the native American 
chestnut of the familiar type; and also the little 
native species known as the Chinquapin. 
It is interesting to record that the chinquapin, 
with its almost insignificant nut, crossed readily 
with the Japanese species, the mammoth nut of 
which would seem to place it in quite another class. 
But, in point of fact, there is apparently a very 
close affinity between all the different chestnuts. 
All of them have varied and thus perpetuated 
forms that more or less bridge the gap between the 
typical representatives of the different species, and, 
so far as my observations go, all of them may 
readily be interbred. In a word, the chestnut fur- 
nishes most plastic material for the purposes of 
the plant developer. Just how I have utilized that 
material will appear as we proceed. 
At the time when I received the chestnuts from 
Japan, there were already at hand trees of the 
European and American species of various sizes. 
So soon as the Japanese seedlings were of sufficient 
size, I grafted them on these European and Amer- 
ican trees, in this way being able to stimulate 
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