A CONTRIBUTION TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE 
DEVELOPMENT OF PRUNUS AMERICANA. 
BY R. EARLE BUCHANAN. 
There is no field more promising of results and none that 
has received less attention until recently than the investi- 
gation of the more hidden life histories of our cultivated 
plants. The gross anatomy of these plants has long been 
studied. Later we learned of their relationships through 
a study of theingrouping and classifications. Lastly, the 
microscope with all its world of technique has been 
brought to the study of the various plant structures. 
The best and most nearly perfect or ideal treatment of 
our cultivated plants can be attained only when we know 
ail that is possible regarding their life history and their 
structure; for all have their bearing on the problem of 
production, fruitfulness, fertility and hybridization. In 
no other group of plants is this more true than in those to 
which we give the most intensive culture, such as our 
horticultural crops, especially the orchard fruits. 
The early cytological investigations were purely scien- 
tific in character, their object the general furthering of 
our knowledge of life histories and the tracing of rela- 
tionships. For this purpose a few plants have become 
almost classical, but almost all of these were non-eco- 
nomic. From a study of these forms the greater part of 
the foundations of our knowledge of embryonic develop- 
ment has been laid, and the details of the superstructure 
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