40 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



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 an excellent variety (Kelloggii) 

 abounds, prefer it to the cultivated fruit, both for eating and pre- 

 serving and jelly-making. The typical species is widely distributed 

 over the mountainous regions of the State, and is a low shrub with 

 white bloom and fruit three-quarters of an inch long, of red color 

 and inferior pulp. The better variety 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 this 

 variety 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 advantage. The 

 late Mr. Felix Gillet, of Nevada City, reported that grafting 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 convinced him 

 of this behavior. Other experimenters have condemned the stock 

 because of dwarfing and suckering. In early days the wild plums 

 in the mining regions of the mountains were largely made use of 

 and are highly praised by pioneers. 



Oso Berry (Nuttallia 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 

 different characteristics. The western Choke-cherry (Prunus 

 donissa) closely resembles the Eastern choke-cherry, and bears its 

 round, red, or dark purple fruit on a raceme. It is used for marma- 

 lade by housewives 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 fruit 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 



