NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 
seedlings or hybrids,—a page is given up to it. 
Here the method of record is extremely 
interesting and novel. The fruit is cut in half 
and laid in its fresh, juicy state upon the upper 
left-hand corner of the sheet. It is pressed 
firmly down upon the paper and a pencil is 
drawn around it, defining absolutely its size. 
There is no recourse here to a photograph or 
to a sketch,—he is after absolute fact, and the 
fruit is the fact. Another rapidly drawn line 
on the inside discloses the seed-cavity. I have 
seen one of these récords where the stain of 
the fresh fruit had remained upon the paper 
for five years. 
In the upper right-hand corner of the sheet 
is a name, some strange whimsical name which 
is used to identify the fruit until such time as 
it shall come up before the world in finished 
shape for its final christening. For a long 
time Mr. Burbank tried using numbers, but 
this proved impracticable, not only because of 
the liability to mistakes in transcribing but 
because the numbers became so large, on 
account of the extent of the tests, that they 
were unwieldy. One mistake in a number, also, 
might be fatal to the whole test. Again and 
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