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 records 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 



826 



