450 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



domestication because the Old World plums, with which 

 we are chiefly familiar in the northeastern states, will 

 not thrive in the prairie states and the South. The 

 cultivated native plums had been widely disseminated 

 'before horticultural annalists discovered the fact; and 

 there is no evidence that the early introducers of them 

 had any suspicion that they were making history when 

 they planted them. These plums were, no doubt, 

 looked upon as a makeshift in a new country, as a 

 fruit which was better than none when good ones 

 could not be had. 



The reason why the native raspberries came into 

 cultivation was because the European species is tender 

 in our climate, and demands too much care and pet- 

 ting. The native types of gooseberries drove out the 

 foreign ones because the latter are injuriously infested 

 with the mildew. The native crabs are now demand- 

 ing attention where the climate is so severe that the 

 cultivated apple cannot thrive. The wild red mul- 

 berry has been improved because the Old World black 

 mulberry is tender, and we have been so ignorant of 

 the fact that we have all along supposed that these 

 natives are forms of the Old World species. The 

 Chilian strawberrythe foundation stock of our 

 commercial varieties brought itself into domestication 

 while men were bent upon impressing the Virginian 

 berry into service ; and most of our writers still insist 

 upon calling the common garden strawberries descend- 

 ants of the latter species, so ignorant are they of 

 the true course of the evolution. 



The obverse of this picture is likewise instructive 

 in showing how difficult it is to introduce and to 

 improve fruits which are not forced upon us. For a 



