664 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



in the mountain region. Finally, the rea- 

 son of most importance, perhaps, is that 

 difficult to define something in the plant 

 constitution called adaptability. 



We look upon plants and animals as 

 creatures of environment. They are what 

 they are because of certain conditions of 

 food supply along with climatic and social 

 influence. But organic life has within 

 itself an inherent power of variation and 

 adaptability which enables some individ- 

 uals or species to survive under changed 

 conditions of life and food supply. The 

 fact that characteristics may appear in 

 one place that fit a plant for life in a 

 different environment is now recognized. 

 The great Dutch botanist and plant breed- 

 er, DeVries. goes so far as to advocate 

 that most of the desert flora is probably 

 made up of varieties that had their 

 origin by mutation in a more favorable 

 location and by migration have found a 

 home in the arid soils which they do not 

 enjoy, but which they are able to endure. 

 Under proper irrigation and in soils rich 

 in plant foods, with favorable climate, 

 plants brought to the arid region would 

 seem to have better chance for growth 

 and development than in some of the 

 regions where they originate, but we must 

 recognize that the conditions of life are 

 so different that there must be a large 

 range of adaptability in the species or 

 there must be some dominant character 

 which definitely fits the variety to this 

 different environment, or it will fail. In 

 my opinion these characteristics are much 

 more apt to appear in the region during 

 the time the plant is growing under those 

 particular conditions, and herein lies the 

 reason for securing our plants or seeds 

 at home or at least from a place where 

 the conditions are not less severe. 



•B. C. Buffum, in Address before Wyoming 

 State Board of Horticulture. 



Bud Worm. See Peach Twig Borer. 



Buffalo Berry 



Lepargyrae argentea, Greene 

 Shepherdia argentae, Nutt. 

 The buffalo berry is a tall shrub or 

 small tree, a near relative of the Rus- 

 sian olive which it resembles in its sil- 



very foliage and yellowish flowers. The 

 fruit is rather sour, slightly resembling 

 that of ripe cranberries, spherical in 

 shape, about the size of large currants 

 or small gooseberries, and of a reddish 

 color. The tree is very hardy, with 

 thorns that enable it to grow where other 

 small fruits would be destroyed by stock, 

 or other unfavorable surroundings. How- 

 ever, it is not largely cultivated, because 

 in competition with other fruits like cur- 

 rants, gooseberries, blackberries, rasp- 

 berries, etc., it seems not to be preferred 

 by the trade. 



F. W. Card, in the New Cyclopedia of 

 American Horticulture, says: "The buf- 

 falo berry has long been before the pub- 

 lic, but It is only within the last few 

 years, that it has attained any promi- 

 nence as a fruit plant. In Hovey's Maga- 

 zine of Horticulture for 1S41, page 251, 

 it is mentioned as frequently cultivated, 

 indicating that it had found its way 

 into our gardens earlier than the black- 

 berry. Its position today bears evidence 

 that no such place was awaiting it as 

 stood ready for the blackberry, or that 

 if there were, it has lamentably failed in 

 filling it. The plant did not find its place 

 as a cultivated shrub until the settlement 

 of the West created a demand for hardy 

 and drouth resisting fruits." 



It is the hardy drouth resisting quali- 

 ties of this fruit that has brought it 

 into prominence in the mountainous and 

 semi-arid regions of the West. It may 

 therefore be found growing on the semi- 

 arid plains east of the Rocky mountains 

 in Montana. Wyoming, Colorado, New 

 Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, 

 and in parts of Canada. 



It is very tenacious of life, and is easily 

 propagated by seeds, by suckers, or by 

 cuttings. Its fruit is used mostly for 

 jellies and has a very pleasant taste. As 

 a fruit adapted to conditions where other 

 fruits will not succeed, it has consider- 

 able value; but in competition in the 

 markets with fruits grown for commer- 

 cial purposes, in regions adapted to fruit 

 growing, it will not succeed. 



Granville Lowther 



