THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 75 



California, brought the plant to notice. This wild plum is not common 

 except in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in northern California 

 and southern Oregon, where it often forms thickets of small trees along 

 streams, thriving in fresh, fertile, sandy soils, in canons, on hillsides or in 

 the forests of yellow pine which are found in this region. Hammond ' 

 writes of it growing here as usually a small tree but often seen as a shrub 

 from four to five feet high. Of the frequency of the occurrence he says: 

 " It often sets the whole countryside ablaze in the autumn, with the 

 abundance of its scarlet and crimson colors, mingled, of course, with red 

 and yellow, and garnished with a sprinkling of green." Sandberg ' re- 

 ports having collected Prunus subcordata as far north and east as Nez 

 Perces County, northern Idaho, in the Craig Mountains at an altitude of 

 about 2,900 feet, but this report is based on an error in determination, the 

 specimen collected by Sandberg being clearly a European species. The 

 tree and the fruit vary greatly according to the locality. 



This Subcordata plum is one of the standard food products of the 

 aborigines in the region in which it grows, being eaten either raw or cooked ; 

 and it is sometimes dried in considerable quantities at the harvesting places 

 and carried considerable distances to the Indian villages.' The trappers, 

 the first men to enter the habitat of this plum, followed by the gold- 

 seekers and ranchers, all knew and esteemed the fruit. The early settlers 

 regarded it as the most useful of all the wild fruits of the Coast and 

 attempts were made at an early date to domesticate it. Of these 

 Wickson says:* 



"In 1856 there was, on the Middle Yuba River, not far from Forest 

 City, in Sierra County, a wayside establishment known as ' Plum Valley 

 Ranch,' so-called from the great quantity of wild plums growing on and 

 about the place. The plum by cultivation gave a more vigorous growth 

 and larger fruit. Transplanted from the mountains into the valley they 

 are found to ripen earlier. Transplanted from the mountains to a farm 

 near the coast, in Del Norte County, they did not thrive. One variety, 

 moved from the hills near Petaluma in 1858, was grown as an orchard 

 tree for fifteen years, and improved both in growth and quality of fruit 

 by cultivation. * * * * Recently excellent results have been reported 

 from the domestication of the native plum in Nevada County, and fruit 



'^ Gar. and For. 3:625. i8go. 



2 Sandberg, J. H. Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3:221. 1895. 



3 Coville, F. V. Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 5:99. 1897; and Chestnut, V. K. Coni. U. S. Nat. Herb. 

 7:356. 1902. 



' Wickson, E. J. California Fruits 52. 1891. 



