ON THE CHERRY 
compact grower, of heavy form and good foliage, 
and which had previously been put upon the mar- 
ket as the Improved Dwarf Rocky Mountain 
Cherry. This native tree has a fruit nearly as 
large as the Richmond cherry and sometimes of 
fairly good flavor. The Prunus Besseyi has al- 
ways been considered a cherry by horticultural 
and botanical writers. My experiments, however, 
seem quite clearly to demonstrate that it is more 
truly a plum. 
I have had the tree under cultivation for more 
than sixteen years. The fruits of the original 
plant were black and bitter, almost as astringent 
as a persimmon. By combining this plant with 
various other American and Japanese plums, I 
produced abundant seedlings, and in 1904 had de- 
veloped one especially promising variety. The 
fruit of this hybrid seedling ripens in California 
about August 10th, and is extremely large for this 
type. It is globular, and about one inch and a 
quarter in diameter. The color is pure, deep 
crimson, with a semi-transparent amber flesh, 
firm, juicy, and of a rich, sweet flavor, resembling 
that of the American plum. The tree is intensely 
productive, even breaking with its own weight of 
fruit. 
It has been suggested that this tree gives great 
promise as an aid in the production of a hardy 
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