FRUITS AND SHRUBS OF PRIEST RIVER VALLEY. 24 1 



The service-berry or Jtme-berry (Amclanchier alnifoiia^ occurs 

 somewhat commonly in some localities on open slopes. It is a 

 shrub 3-5 feet high, with small, alder-like leaves, as the name 

 implies. The calyx is persistent on the fruit, which is of the 

 same size as the Oregon grape, and borne in racemes. It is blue- 

 black in color and sweetish, sub-acid in taste. When hungry 

 on the way to camp, we often regaled ourselves with this excellent 

 fruit. It yields itself readily to cultivation and improvement. 



The wild strawberry (Fragaria sp.*) is a smaller plant than 

 our F. Virginiana and F. lUinoensis of the east and middle west. 

 It grows nearly everywhere on open ground, to the top of the 

 highest hills. Its fruit is elliptical, ^—^2 inch in length, with 

 conical achenes or seeds, not borne in pits as our eastern wild 

 berry, but on the surface, as in Fragaria vcsca, the European 

 strawberry. It is both juicy and aromatic. Color and taste need 

 no description, for the strawberry is known and welcomed with 

 delight wherever found. 



The thimble-berr}- or salmon-berry (Rubus nntkamis) fre- 

 quently forms a dense ground-cover of the slightly open forest of 

 semi-moist slopes and hills. It is 2-3 feet in height, with the leaf 

 of the raspberry, but six inches in diameter. Its flowers are the 

 size of our wild rose, and a dense thimble-berry patch in July 

 often presents a beautiful appearance. The flattened fruit is 

 about ^ inch across, and when ripe, it can easily be shaken from 

 the broad, flat receptacle. It is bright crimson, pleasant sub-acid, 

 but somewhat insipid. 



The red raspberry (Rub lis strigasus) is not common. It likes 

 to spring up in burnt areas on hillsides, where it occasionally 

 forms dense patches that make excellent picking. It resembles 

 our cultivated raspberry very much, both in plant and fruit. To 

 eat out of hand it is equal to or superior to the best cultivated 

 raspberry of the middle west. 



The black-cap raspberry is another fine fruit, but somewhat 

 rare. It is probably a western form of the variable Rubus occi- 

 dentaUs. It seems to find congenial foothold about the log cabins 



* This is probably Sandberg's No. 508. collected here in 1892 (Cent. U. 

 S. Nat. Herb. III., 4). No specific name is given it in this reference. 



