282 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 
it is this wonderful “ nondescript” berry, with its inferior fruit, 
that yielded best to cultivation and has given us the most of 
our cultivated varieties, of which the Snyder and Kittatinny 
are examples.! 
Besides these there is the so-called ‘white blackberry” 
(Rubus nigrobaccus var. albinus), an albino variety midway 
between the main strain and the sa¢/vus, with the habits of 
growth and quality of fruit closely resembling the former, but 
of especially fine quality.? 
The melon. Dear to the heart and palate of every boy is 
the melon. It exists in two well-marked and distinct species, 
belonging even to different genera: 
1, The muskmelon, or cantaloupe (Cacums melo), is certainly 
native both in Beluchistan and westward, on the coast of Guinea, 
and in central Africa and eastward. In the wild the fruit varies 
from the size of a plum to that of a lemon, and is commonly 
extremely insipid. This generally unpromising character is 
probably responsible for the fact that the melon was not culti- 
vated in early times ; indeed, it was not until our own day that 
really excellent varieties have been established, — all of which 
goes to show the power of cultivation and selection to work im- 
provement, and that the wild plant often gives little indication 
of its hidden possibilities, which quickly appear when once they 
are unlocked and liberated by generous opportunity. 
t 
1 A few cultivated varieties, like the Wilson and Rathbun, are considered 
to be hybrids between the blackberry and the dewberry (Rudus villosus). 
2 Burbank is erroneously credited with having “ produced” the white black- 
berry in the sense of having created it. Now the white blackberry is a strain, 
probably a mutant, that frequently arises, as every woods boy knows, and 
Mr. Burbank’s “ production” consists in cultivating one or more of the many 
thousands of such “ sports” produced by this great berry. 
The student should understand that nearly everything has its albino (white) 
strain, which is altogether likely a mutant from the main stock. Thus we have 
the white blackberry, strawberry, raspberry, currant, apple, as well as the white 
rabbit, deer, horse, cow, pig, sheep, and so on, of practically all species. With 
the sheep, the white is the favorite stock, which was also true of the pig till 
the opening up of the corn belt and the origin of the Poland China breed, 
which happens to be black. 
