WILD CHERRIES AND GRAPES 37 



The better variety has a narrower range, forms a larger shrub, and bears 

 a yellow fruit, larger and better than the typical species. Some 

 attempts have been made to improve this variety by cultivation and 

 selection of seedlings, and the results are promising, as fruit has been 

 shown at our fairs notably better than the wild gatherings. The roots 

 have also been used to some extent as stocks, but seem to possess no 

 marked advantage. The late Mr. Felix Gillet, of Nevada City, re- 

 ported that grafting an improved plum on the wild stock seems to 

 cause the root to grow to much greater size than natural to it. Ob- 

 servation upon grafted and non-grafted seedlings in the same nursery 

 row convinced him of this behavior. Other experimenters have con- 

 demned the stock because of dwarfing and suckering. In the early 

 days the wild plums in the mining regions of the mountains were 

 largely made use of and are highly praised by pioneers. 



Oso Berry (Osmaronia cerasif ormis) . This fruit is sometimes 

 called the "California false plum." It has a plum-like form, one- 

 half inch long, and is of a rich, blue-black color, but is bitter, though 

 not disagreeable to birds and animals, which feed upon it. The white 

 bloom of the shrub has an almond odor. Used as a stock, the plum 

 varieties grafted upon it have been dwarfed. 



Wild Cherries (Prunus sp.). Quite a group of wild fruits come 

 under this generic grouping, and they have marked and widely differ- 

 ent characteristics. The western Choke-cherry (Prunus demissa) 

 closely resembles the Eastern choke-cherry, and bears its round, red, 

 or dark purple fruit on a racme . It is used for marmalade by 

 housewives in the mountain districts. This species has proved of some 

 utility both for its fruit and as a stock for grafting in early days when 

 better cherry stock was not available. Another species, Islay (Prunus 

 ilicifolia), has evergreen foliage, and is a useful hedge plant. 



Of species bearing fruits in umbels, or true cherry style, we have 

 the Bitter Cherry (Prunus emarginata), which makes a handsome 

 tree, sometimes thirty feet high, but its oval, dark red fruit is quite 

 bitter and astringent. The bush form bearing bright red fruit in- 

 tensely bitter, is the variety of California. 



California Grape (Vitis Calif ornica). Along our streams the 

 native grape-vine attains large size and fruits freely, the fruit re- 

 sembling the "frost grape" of the East. The vine frequently covers 

 and sometimes kills large trees with the density of its foliage. Some 

 variation is reported in the species, but it is possible that some of the 

 better kinds are seedlings from some imported species, bird planted. 

 The species has attained something of a reputation as a phyloxera- 

 resisting root for grafting, but it has proved exacting in its choice 

 of soils and situations, and otherwise not desirable, and some East- 

 ern species are now relied upon for this service. 



Elderberry (Sambucus glauca). The elderberry makes a fine 

 tree in California, sometimes twenty feet or more in height, and with 

 a trunk a foot and a half in diameter. The fruit is borne in large 

 quantities and is used to some extent for preserves and pastry. 



