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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