Wild Plums and Cherries. 39 
Oregon Crabapple (Pyrus rivularis). —This fruit, though more 
abundant in the more northerly regions of the coast, as its name 
indicates, is found in the northwest counties of this State. It 
chooses a moist situation, becomes a tree fifteen to twenty-five 
feet high, shows white bloom, and red or yellow oblong fruit, 
about 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 (Kel- 
loggii) abounds, prefer it to the cultivated fruit, both for eating 
and preserving 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. Mr. Felix Gillet, of Nevada 
City, reports 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 seed- 
lings 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 (Osmaronia cerasiformis).—This fruit is sometimes 
called the “California false plum.” It has a plum-like form, and 
is of a rich, blue-black color, but is bitter, though not disagree- 
able 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. One (Primus demissa) closely 
resembles the Eastern choke-cherry, and bears its round, red, or 
dark purple fruit on a raceme. It is used for marmalade 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 
