614 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1035 



blackberries, dewberries, cranberries and 

 gooseberries North America has already 

 given the world a great variety of new fruits. 

 There are now under cultivation 11 Ameri- 

 can species of plums, of which there are 

 433 pure-bred and 155 hybrid varieties ; 15 

 species of American grapes with 404 pure 

 and 790 hybrid varieties ; 4 species of rasp- 

 berries with 280 varieties; 6 species of 

 blackberries with 86 varieties; 5 species of 

 dewberries with 23 varieties; 2 species of 

 cranberries with 60 varieties and 2 goose- 

 berries with 35 varieties. Here are 45 spe- 

 cies of American fruits with 2,226 varieties, 

 domesticated within approximately a half 

 century. De CandoUe named none of them. 

 The final note of exultation at this really 

 magnificent achievement of American hor- 

 ticulture would typically be uttered in a 

 boast as to the number of millions of dol- 

 lars these fruits bring fruit-growers each 

 year, but science is not sordid and the cal- 

 culation, I am sure, would not interest you. 

 "What more can be done ? The possibili- 

 ties of the fruits named have by no means 

 been exhausted. The fruit of the wild 

 plum, Prunus maritima, an inhabitant of 

 sea-beaches and dunes from New Brunswick 

 to the Carolinas, is a common article of 

 trade in the region in which it grows, but 

 notwithstanding the fact that it readily 

 breaks into innumerable forms and is a 

 most promising subject under hybridiza- 

 tion, practically nothing has yet been done 

 toward domesticating it. Few plants grow 

 under such varied conditions as our wild 

 grapes. Not all have been brought under 

 subjugation, though nearly all have horti- 

 cultural possibilities. It is certain that 

 some grape can be grown in every agricul- 

 tural region of the United States. The blue- 

 berry and huckleberry, finest of fruits, and 

 now the most valuable American wild 

 fruits, the crops bringing several millions 

 of dollars annually, are not yet domesti- 



cated. Coville has demonstrated that the 

 blueberry can be cultivated. Some time we 

 should have numerous varieties of the sev- 

 eral blueberries and huckleberries to enrich 

 pine plains, mountain tracts, swamps and 

 waste lands that otherwise are all but 

 worthless. A score or more native species 

 of gooseberries and currants can be domes- 

 ticated and should some time extend the 

 culture of these fruits from the Gulf of 

 Mexico to the Arctic Circle. There are 

 many forms of juneberries widely distri- 

 buted in the United States and Canada, 

 from which several varieties are now culti- 

 vated. The elderberry is represented by 

 a dozen or more cultivated varieties, one of 

 which, brought to my attention the past 

 season, produced a half hundred enormous 

 clusters, a single cluster being made up of 

 2,208 berries, each a third of an inch in 

 diameter. 



These are but a few of the fruits — others 

 which can only be named are: the anonas 

 and their kin from Florida; the native 

 crab-apples and thorn-apples; the wine- 

 berry, the buffalo-berry and several wild 

 cherries; the cloud-berry prized in Labra- 

 dor; the crow-berry of cold and Arctic 

 America; the high-bush cranberry; native 

 mulberries; opuntias and other cacti for 

 the deserts; the paw-paw, the persimmon, 

 and the well-known and much-used salal 

 and salmon berries of the west and north. 



The pecan, the chestnut and the hickory- 

 nut are the only native nuts domesticated, 

 but some time forest and waste places can 

 be planted not only to the nuts named, but 

 to improved varieties of acorns, beech- 

 nuts, butternuts, filberts, hazels, chinqua- 

 pins and nut-pines, to utilize waste lands, 

 to diversify diet and to furnish articles of 

 food that can be shipped long distances 

 and be kept from year to year. The fad of 

 to-day which substitutes nuts for meat may 

 become a necessity to-morrow. Meanwhile 



