CHAPTER IV 



THE WILD FRUITS OF CALIFORNIA 



The wild fruits of California are numerous, and for the most part 

 peculiar to the region, being either of local genera or local species of 

 more widely distributed genera. Very few are identical with the wild 

 fruits common to great areas of the continent. For this reason our 

 wild fruits constitute a very interesting subject for botanical study, 

 and they are now, perhaps, more widely than ever before, attracting 

 the attention of botanical promologists. Viewed from the standpoint 

 of practical pomology or 'Horticulture, our wild fruits can not be 

 claimed, on the whole, to have attained any very great importance. 



A few fruits, as will be noted further on, have demonstrated their 

 culinary or household value, and are locally sought for, but none have 

 any notable commercial value. This may be due to the fact that some 

 of our most delicious wild fruits are very exacting in their choice of 

 conditions, and can not be moved far, even within the limits of our own 

 State. 



Another reason why we have made little of our own wild species 

 is found in the fact that our climate favors the superior growth of the 

 best improved fruits of nearly all parts of the world. Therefore, we 

 have little occasion for recourse to the improvement of local wild 

 fruits, because of superior hardiness and adaptation, as has been done 

 in other parts of the country. 



The distribution of our wild fruits is determined by limitations of 

 areas of similar climatic conditions. In a general way it may be said 

 that fruits are most abundant in foothill and mountain regions, and 

 that our great valleys have always been practically destitute of them, 

 except along streams borders. These fruits are most abundant in 

 the northern portion of the State, but some exist throughout the State, 

 usually thriving at higher elevations as they proceed southward. 



Oregon Crabapple (Pirus rivularis). This fruit, though more 

 abundant in the more northerly regions of the coast, as its name in- 

 dicates, is found in the northwest counties of this State. It chooses a 

 moist situation, becomes a tree fifteen to twenty-five feet high, shows 

 white bloom, and red or yellow oblong fruit, about half an inch long. 

 The flavor is rather acid, but the fruit is eaten by the Indians, and 

 was sometimes used for jelly-making by early settlers. 



Wild Plum (Prunus subcordata). This must be regarded as 

 one of the most useful of our wild fruits. Even now, when the plum 

 varieties of all the world have been introduced, residents in some of 

 the Sierra regions, where an excellent variety (Kelloggii) abounds, 

 prefer it to the cultivated fruit, both for eating and preserving and 

 jelly-making. The typical species is widely distributed over the moun- 

 tainous regions of the State, and is a low shrub with white bloom and 

 fruit three-quarters of an inch long, of red color and inferior pulp. 



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