THE SAND CHERRY 511 



era choke cherry, Prunus Virginiana, occasionally found in cul- 

 tivation, but is larger. 



The species is found wild from Manitoba to Kansas and 

 westward to the mountains of Colorado and Utah. Its value as 

 a fruit-plant has been urged from time to time, and it was in- 

 troduced from Colorado as the improved dwarf Rocky Mountain 

 cherry. Plants received under this name have been growing 

 in the grounds of the Nebraska Experiment Station for several 

 years, and although white with blossoms in springtime, none 

 of the fruit matured until wild plants were set in the same gar- 

 den, probably owing to a lack of proper fecundation. 



Similar lack of fruitfulness sometimes occurs when wild plants 

 are removed to the garden, though as a rule they are immensely 

 productive. Wild plants set in the spring of 1895 were loaded 

 with fruit in 1897. The size varies much on different plants, 

 showing abundant opportunity for selection. It ripens after other 

 cherries, from the middle to the last of July, in Nebraska. The 

 largest fruits are about equal in size to the Early Richmond and 

 English Morello, as grown here. Although* somewhat astringent, 

 it is rather pleasant to eat out of hand, and rapidly disappeared 

 from our plants, which are near to the farm buildings. It should 

 be left until fully ripe, for this astringency is then less notice- 

 able. Any eastern housewife who has known the value of the 

 better forms of the eastern choke cherry, though such are few, 

 for that species is little known in cultivation, will be able to 

 appreciate the merits of the sand cherry as a fruit. Many western 

 housewives know it already. It makes excellent sauce and 

 admirable jelly, and is, no doubt, equally good for pies. 



Those familiar with the cultivated choke cherry find that 

 when its fruits are fully ripe their astringency may be almost 

 wholly removed by rolling them in a sack or shaking them in a 

 closed dish. When so treated they make an excellent dish, eaten 

 raw with sugar and cream. Perhaps a similar treatment might 

 improve the sand cherry. 



Whatever value the sand cherry may have as a fruit-produc- 

 ing plant in the future pomology of the country, its position as 

 an ornamental shrub is assured, and it is chiefly to this use that I 



