New Plants Such as the Plumcot

It is absolutely a new kind of fruit. The very flavor and taste of it have hitherto been unknown to the human palate.

Continuing Luther Burbank’s Accomplishments,
with a selection from an article in Cosmopolitan Magazine by Garrett P. Servtss. This selection is presented in 4.5 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Luther Burbank’s Accomplishments.

Place: Santa Rosa, California

Take, for instance, the “plumcot”; its name hints at its ancestry, for it is the offspring of the plum and the apricot. It is absolutely a new kind of fruit. The very flavor and taste of it have hitherto been unknown to the human palate. When I visited Mr. Burbank’s experimental farm at Sebastopol, near Santa Rosa, toward the end of May last, there were rows of trees hanging full of green plumcots, but, unfortunately for my desire to taste this new fruit, in this new garden of Eden, the plumcot does not ripen until July. So I could only admire it amid its rich covering of foliage, and feast my eyes upon the spectacle of trees gleaming with showers of fruit whose kind nature did not know until the genius of man summoned it into being! It is only four years since the first plumcot turned its downy cheek to the sun, and brought into the world a new pleasure for gourmands, but already it promises to be the proginitor of a distinguished line of descendants as varied among themselves as any family of fruits already known. Not only in their flavor, but in the color of their pulp — now white, now pink, now red, now yellow — and in their way of bearing their pits, plumcots differ in variety, as apples and other of nature’s own fruits differ. This last phrase should not, however, lead any one to suppose that the plumcot is, in any sense, an un natural product. Mr. Burbank did not create the tendencies that gave birth to it; he simply discovered and guided those tendencies, and, while nature might never spontaneously have turned them in the direction which he chose, yet, once set in motion, nature’s forces flowed in the new course as freely as would a stream whose accustomed channel had been dammed up and another way opened for its waters. How Mr. Burbank accomplishes these things I shall endeavor to explain a little later.

Another surprising product of this kind is the “primus ‘ berry. There is an unfortunate artificiality about this name which is apt to give the reader the impression that the fruit described by it is merely a horticultural variety, instead of being what it actually is, a new and distinct species of berry, as fit to stand in a rank by itself on account of individuality of flavor and habit as is the raspberry or the blackberry. In fact, though differing from them both, the primus berry is the result of a cross between a raspberry from Siberia and a black berry, or dewberry, from California. It stands on the records, with scientific recognition, as the first fixed species of the rubus tribe ever artificially produced. Yet not long ago there was a dictum, much repeated in scientific circles, to the effect that it is impossible for man to produce new species. And that is not the only highly respected dictum that has gone the same way. True science, however, preserves its credit by promptly dis carding exploded theories and loyally accepting established facts. Such facts are the plumcot and the primus berry.

The result of a cross between different species is usually spoken of as a hybrid. Mr. Burbank has many flourishing hybrids, some of them far more beautiful and more useful than either of the species from whose hidden stores of undeveloped tendencies and latent life-forces they were brought forth. He has in this manner created two new species of walnuts, each of which, in its own way, may bring about a revolution in the world of trees. One of these is the “paradox” walnut ( pity, again, that such a name should have been necessary ), whose first wonderful feature is the swiftness of its growth. It has been pronounced to be the fastest-growing tree in the temper ate zone. There is a row of these trees bordering the walk in front of Mr. Burbank’s home, some of which, in thirteen or fourteen years, have developed trunks two feet in diameter, while their broad-spreading tops cast around them the shadows of giants.

Yet, contrary to what is almost invariably found with fast growing trees, these great walnuts are remarkable for the hardness and durability of their wood! This has been com pared to lignum vitae for solidity, while it possesses a most beautiful color, and is in every respect suitable and excellent for cabinet-making and for building timber. This new kind of tree is capable itself of developing improved varieties without losing its distinctive characteristics, and Mr. Burbank anticipates that it will give rise to many novel cabinet woods, and will add immensely to the timber wealth of the country after it shall have been widely introduced and cultivated.

Now, note a most significant thing : the paradox walnut is not much of a nutbearer, but its half-brother, the “royal” walnut, loads itself with amazing crops of large, sweet nuts. Both have the same mother, the native Californian black walnut, but the father of the paradox was the English walnut, and that of the royal the Eastern black walnut. The first exhibited at the beginning surprising vegetative energy, and was urged in the direction of growth at the expense of the reproductive power; the second showed great reproductive power, and was specially developed along that line. The consequence is that two new kinds of walnut-trees have been brought into existence, one of which offers the world an immense addition to its supply of valuable timber and beautiful cabinet wood, while the other is a food-producer, yielding nuts increased four or five times in size and enormously in number.

Garrett P. Servtss begins here. David Starr Jordan begins here.

More information here and here, and below.

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