664 
in the mountain region. Finally, the rea- 
son of most importance, perhaps, is that 
difficult to define something in the plant 
constitution called adaptability. 
We look upon plants and animals as 
creatures of environment. They are what 
they are because of certain conditions of 
food supply along with climatic and social 
influence. But organic life has within 
itself an inherent power of variation and 
adaptability which enables some individ- 
uals or species to survive under changed 
conditions of life and food supply. The 
fact that characteristics may appear in 
one place that fit a plant for life in a 
different environment is now recognized. 
The great Dutch botanist and plant breed- 
er, DeVries, goes so far as to advocate 
that most of the desert flora is probably 
made up of varieties that had their 
origin by mutation in a more favorable 
location and by migration have found a 
home in the arid soils which they do not 
enjoy, but which they are able to endure. 
Under proper irrigation and in soils rich 
in plant foods, with favorable climate, 
plants brought to the arid region would 
seem to have better chance for growth 
and development than in some of the 
regions where they originate, but we must 
recognize that the conditions of life are 
so different that there must be a large 
range of adaptability in the species or 
there must be some dominant character 
which definitely fits the variety to this 
different environment, or it will fail. In 
my opinion these characteristics are much 
more apt to appear in the region during 
the time the plant is growing under those 
particular conditions, and herein lies the 
reason for securing our plants or seeds 
at home or at least from a place where 
the conditions are not less severe. 
*B. C. Buffum, in Address before Wyoming 
State Board of Horticulture. 
Bup Worm. See Peach Twig Borer. 
Buffalo Berry 
Lepargyrae argentea, Greene 
Shepherdia argeniae, Nutt. 
The buffalo berry is a tall shrub or 
small tree, a near relative of the Rus- 
sian olive which it resembles in its sil- 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
very foliage and yellowish flowers. The 
fruit is rather sour, slightly resembling 
that of ripe cranberries, spherical in 
shape, about the size of large currants 
or small gooseberries, and of a reddish 
eolor. The tree is very hardy, with 
thorns that enable it to grow where other 
small fruits would be destroyed by stock, 
or other unfavorable surroundings. How- 
ever, it is not largely cultivated, because 
in competition with other fruits like cur- 
rants, gooseberries, blackberries, rasp- 
perries, etc., it seems not to be preferred 
by the trade. 
F, W. Card, in the New Cyclopedia of 
American Horticulture, says: “The buf- 
falo berry has long been before the pub- 
lic, but it is only within the last few 
years, that it has attained any promi- 
nence as a fruit plant. In Hovey’s Maga- 
zine of Horticulture for 1841, page 251, 
it is mentioned as frequently cultivated, 
indicating that it had found its way 
into our gardens earlier than the black- 
berry. Its position today bears evidence 
that no such place was awaiting it as 
stood ready for the blackberry, or that 
if there were, it has lamentably failed in 
filling it. The plant did not find its place 
as a cultivated shrub until the settlement 
of the West created a demand for hardy 
and drouth resisting fruits.” 
It is the hardy drouth resisting quali- 
ties of this fruit that has brought it 
into prominence in the mountainous and 
semi-arid regions of the West. It may 
therefore be found growing on the semi- 
arid plains east of the Rocky mountains 
in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New 
Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, 
and in parts of Canada. 
It is very tenacious of life, and is easily 
propagated by seeds, by suckers, or by 
cuttings. Its fruit is used mostly for 
jellies and has a very pleasant taste. As 
a fruit adapted to conditions where other 
fruits will not succeed, it has consider- 
able value; but in competition in the 
markets with fruits grown for commer- 
cial purposes, in regions adapted to fruit 
growing, it will not succeed. 
GRANVILLE LOWTHER 
