Notes and Comment. 



267 



the birds. The wind was wholly inefficient, even at a distance 

 of 40 meters. 



NOTES AND COMMENT. 



Nothing seems to disturb the mental equilibrium of the 

 average botanist and horticulturist so quickly and surely as a 

 question concerning the products of Luther Burbank's breeding 

 operations. The preposterous statements of the daily press, 

 and the equally unsound indiscriminating praise of friends of 

 Mr. Burbank, including some scientists known as botanists and 

 zoologists, have combined to raise a very real prejudice against 

 anything purporting to come from Santa Rosa. 



The influence of such antagonism is to be seen in the recent 

 agitation concerning the nature of the Wonderberry, which has 

 been sold to a nursery by Burbank. It is to be noted regretfully 

 that a number of botanists have exhibited methods of treatment 

 no more judicial or fair-minded than that of the average news- 

 paper reporter. 



The Wonderberry is described as a hybrid between Solatium 

 Guinense and Solatium villosum by Mr. Burbank. A number 

 of skilled systematists give as their mature opinions that it is 

 simply Solatium villosum or Solatium nigrum. This conclusion 

 was reached upon simple taxonomic data, although it has long 

 been well recognized among breeders and students of heredity 

 *that a simple examination of the external appearance of an indi 

 vidual could not yield an accurate diagnosis of its ancestry, 

 both structural examination and pedigree cultures being neces- 

 sary. 



Now comes the announcement of the results of studies by 

 Dr. W. A. Cannon on the origin, variation and inheritance of 

 hairs in hybrids, in which it is noted that one type of these 

 organs in the Wonderberry is exactly like one of S. Guinense, 

 and is not found in 5. villosum. Many other features being like 

 S. villosum, the hybridity of the Wonderberry is, therefore, 

 well established, and a rude shock given to the specialists who 



