CALIFORNIA WILD PLUMS AND CHERRIES 37 



to the cultivated fruit, both for eating and preserving and jelly- 

 making. 



Concerning the variable species, subcordata, which has varieties 

 both excellent and worthless, Dr. W. L. Jepson of the University of 

 California furnishes the following note : 



In the coast ranges and central Sierras I have never seen Prunus sub- 

 cordata with an edible or near-edible fruit. But in Modoc and Siskiyou 

 counties the shrubs bear abundantly a bright red, roundish plum, which 

 is used freely for preserving and highly praised for the manufactured pro- 

 duct. These plums are certainly very beautiful. They are of a fine crimson 

 color and I saw shrubs in the Warner mountains loaded with them. At the 

 same time I saw shrubs of a sub-race ripening two weeks later a reddish 

 fruit, much more bitter and little used by the settlers. In addition there is 

 the yellow variety (Kelloggii), which is highly esteemed. 



The variety, Kelloggii, 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 the edible varieties, 

 both red and yellow, 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 advan- 

 tage. The late Mr. Felix Gillet, of Nevada City, reported that graft- 

 ing an improved plum on the wild stock seems to cause the root to 

 grow to much greater size than natural to it. Observation upon 

 grafted and non-grafted seedlings in the same nursery row con- 

 vinced him of this behavior. Other experimenters have condemned 

 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 highly praised by pioneers. 



Oso Berry (Osmaronia cerasiformis). 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 dif- 

 ferent characteristics. The western choke-cherry (Prunus demissa) 

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

 or dark purple fruit on a raceme. It is used for marmalade by house- 

 wives 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 Californica. 



