EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 59 



with our Michigan fruit-belt — it extends clear over from the front, or southern 

 counties, to the Straits of Mackinac, and buttons upon Mackinac Island. 



THE SAND CHERRY. 



W. N. Cook asked about a "plum " which grew about three feet high and 

 which he used to see near Newaygo, loaded with /ruit. 



C. F. Wheeler: In 18G7 I drove across the counties of Kent and Newaygo 



and saw the fruit which Mr. Cook refers to. It is not a plum at all, but 



priintis prwiula OT sand cherry. The fruit is by no means unpleasant when 



fully ripe, and was used by the lumbermen and early settlers as a welcome 



substitute for other and unobtainable fruit for sauce. 



CAl^ ANT GOOD COME OF WILD RICE ? 



Mr. 0. F. Wheeler introduced discussion of wild rice and its susceptibility 

 to imf>rovement under cultivation, saying the plant is a very luxuriant grass 

 which springs up late, along the margins of rivers and lakes, and is plentiful 

 in nearly all Michigan waters. He did not deem it likely to become very 

 useful, although paper has been made from its fiber and the Indians are 

 known to have long used as food its very palatable grain. 



W. J. Bial: It IS botanically a near relative of the well known rice found 

 in our markets, which is so very extensively used for food, especially by- 

 people living in warm countries. Our wild rice is widely diffused in the 

 cooler parts of North America, Siberia and Japan. It is an annual, starting 

 every year fresh from the seed dropped the previous autumn. The stems are 

 small at first, and of rather slow growth, but under favorable circumstances 

 acquire a height of ten or twelve feet. The stems, when there is room enough, 

 put forth numerous branches which flower successively. The top of each 

 branch bears a panicle, one to two feet long, which has fertile flowers at the 

 top and sterile or staminate flowers below. Each fertile flower bears one 

 seed or grain, which is slender and five-eighths of an inch long. The color 

 is dark, though it cooks as well as the common white rice and is rather more 

 nutritious. Wild rice gr-ws on rich marshes and along streams and the shal- 

 low m trgins of ponds. Birds are very fond of the grain. The stems and 

 leaves make excellent food for cattle. Botanically, wild rice is a very interest- 

 ing plant. Tiie long Inaves have the mid-vein nearer one side than the other; 

 the stems are hollow, like the internodes of wheat straw, only every inch or 

 two there is a slender partition which helps to give it strength. The flowers 

 are beautitul subjects for examination under the microscope. The most 

 serious objection to its cultivation that I know of is now to be mentioned. 

 As was said previously, the stems branch near the base, and the tops of these 

 branches flower later than the main stem. Furthermore, the grain on any 

 one stem ripens very unevenly, and drops promptly when it is ripe, thus 

 making it difficult to harvest. Much of the crop is likely to be wasted unless 

 extraordinary care is taken to harvest the grain every day for a month or 

 more Very likely, if care were taken in selecting and breeding for many 

 years, races of wild rice couM be obtained which would branch less, ripen 

 more evenly and hold the grain with greater tenacity. 



In connection with his talk upon this subject Mr. Beal remarked that he 

 once read a higlily interesting work in which a writer considered whether the- 



