240 THE PLANT WORLD. 



WILD FRUITS AND SHRUBS OF THE PRIEST RIVER 



VALLEY. 



By J. C. Blumer. 



The extreme northwestern part of Idaho consists of a valley 

 some fifty miles in length and eighteen miles in width. In the 

 center lies Lake Kaniksu, or Priest Lake, extending across three 

 townships in its length, and across one at its greatest width. It 

 feeds and is fed by the Priest River, which drains the basin in its 

 southward course and empties into the Peud O'Reille. The 

 Cabinet Mountains, attaining a height of 8,000 feet in places and 

 forming the eastern boundary, extend from this river northward 

 to the Canadian boundary, where they unite with the Peud 

 O'Reille Hills, which form the western boundary and attain a 

 height of 5,000 feet. There are perhaps two townships of com- 

 paratively level country, consisting of white, yellow, and black 

 pine forest and swampy meadows, while the remainder of the basin 

 is filled with high slopes and spurs, where the western balsam, 

 red fir, and yellow pine flourish. The valley is well watered and 

 well forested, except about the lake, where the fire-fiend has wiped 

 out both the forest and the possibility of a young growth for many 

 decades to come. 



This interesting region contains a number of wild fruits, some 

 of which are of horticultural as well as botanical interest. The 

 following notes were gathered while spending here the season of 

 1901 in the interests of the United States Forest Service. 



The Oregon grape {Berberis re pens) is not a grape but a bar- 

 berry. It is a low bush 6-10 inches high, quite common on dry 

 ridges. The leaves are 1^/2-2 inches long, oval, thick and glab- 

 rous, with spiny margins. The blue, globular fruit, y^ inch in 

 diameter, is borne in small, grape-like clusters, and presents the 

 typical bloom of the grape. It is extremely acid, but it often 

 served to loosen the parched tongue and quicken the sluggish 

 limbs when climbing a long slope. 



