On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 15:08:09 +0200, "Opinicus" >
wrote:

>"Frogleg" > wrote
>
>> Wrong. That is, you *can* grow a tree from an apple seed, but there is
>> virtually no chance it will be identical to its parent tree, nor
>> anything even close.
>
>Hmm...
>
><quote>
>The Van Mons Theory is a case in point. Jean Baptiste Van Mons (1765-1842)
>was a physician and professor at Louvain, Belgium. He spent much of his life
>in attempting to improve the odds of discovering wonderful new varieties of
>fruit, pears in particular. His program was based upon seed selection and
>successive plantings of large nurseries consisting of generation after
>generation of seedling trees.
></quote>
>
>http://www.ciarrai.net/
>
>Look around the middle of the page.

See my original material. No mention of pears there, right? Nor any of
"all fruit trees." Nor any mention in the URL you supply of whether or
not Mr. Van Mons was at all successful in his pear pursuits. Most
modern apple varieties have been happy accidents, rather than the
result of planned seed breeding. Nearly all commercial breeding is the
result of rootstock crosses. Apples just aren't like sweetpeas. Weird,
isn't it?