244 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



a good start there is but little trouble from this 

 cause. The Russian cherries bud on it fairly well, 

 but do poorly when grafted. I think the round fruits 

 are much more often of good quality than those hav- 

 ing a pointed apex." Mr. C. W. H. Heideman, of 

 New Ulm, Minnesota, has been at work about ten 

 years in endeavoring to secure crosses of Prunus 

 hortulana (as the Miner) upon Prunus Besseyi, with 

 good success. He informs me that all his pollinations 

 are made upon emasculated and protected flowers. 

 He has made some five hundred distinct crosses, some 

 of them with pollen of Prunus Americana, but the 

 issues of this latter combination "are all very weak, 

 and I am afraid," he writes, "that they will not pull 

 through." It is yet too early to determine what the 

 practical results of these crosses may be, but I am 

 looking for something useful for the Northwest and 

 for many of the dry lands of the East. A hybrid of 

 these species is shown natural size in Fig. 40. It 

 is an oblong dull red plum, with rather meaty and 

 sweet flesh, a sourish skin, and a rather large stone. 

 The Compass cherry, being introduced by H. Knud- 

 son, is said to be a hybrid of this cherry with 

 Prunus hortulana* 



Perhaps the most interesting of these derivatives 

 of the western dwarf cherry is the variety known 

 as the "Utah Hybrid cherry" (Fig. 41). All botani- 

 cal evidence goes to show that the plant is a hy- 

 brid of Prunus Bessnji and the sand plum, P. Wat- 

 soni; and its history t bears out this statement. 



*Consult Minn. Horticulturist, Apl. 1896, 132, and Oct. 1896, 416. 

 tPirst given in "The Native Dwarf Cherries," Bull. 70, Cornell Exp. Sta., 

 1894. By Dieck, the plant has been named Prunus Utahensis. 



