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 pomologists. 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 im- 

 portance. 



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 aboundant 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 south- 

 ward.* 



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 the fruit abounds, prefer the wild plum 



*The botanical characters and relations of the fruiting plants mentioned in this chap- 

 ter may be pursued in the "Manual of California Flowering Plants," by Dr. W. L. Jepson, 

 published by the Associated Students Store, Berkeley: price, $3. 



