88 



Edible Wild Fruits of Xew York. 



dant, they give the tree a very ornamental appearance. Variety 

 ollongifolia, the oblong-leaved June berry, is generally smaller than 

 the preceding, has shorter flower clusters and petals, and the branch- 

 lets and lower surface of the young leaves clothed with white down. 

 Variety rotundifolia, the round-leaved June berry, is shrubby and 

 has broader and more rounded leaves and small flower clusters 

 and short petals. It often grows on very poor or light sandy 

 soil, yet fruits abundantly. Variety oligocarpa, the few-fruited 

 June berry, is a shrub of the Adirondack region. It is so 

 peculiar in its appearance in the cold, dark forests that it is at first 

 difficult not to believe it a distinct species. Its leaves are thin, its 

 flowers single, or two to four in a cluster, and its fruit globose or oval 

 and peculiar in flavor. But intermediate or connecting forms have 

 led botanists generally to consider all of these as varieties of one variable 

 species. This variability and the readiness of the species to adapt itself 

 to different soils and surroundings indicate a capacity for improvement 

 under cultivation, and the future may witness a delicious and desirable 

 fruit developed from this plant. The wild berries have sometimes 

 been offered for sale in the Albany market under the name of blue- 

 berries, although they have little resemblance to blueberries either in 

 color or flavor. They are inferior to blueberries in being more coarsely 

 seeded. Plants, also, of this species, have been advertised for sale as 

 blueberry plants. Let us hope that these attempts to sail under false 

 colors were due to ignorance rather than to a deliberate attempt to 

 deceive. The name June berry is perhaps an unfortunate one, for the 

 fruit is generally not ripe with us till in July. The blossoms usually 

 appear in May. Two species of thorn, the scarlet-fruited ( Cratmgus 

 coccinea) and the black thorn {Cratmgus tomentosa), bear fruit that is 

 sometimes eaten, but it is, in both cases, so dry and so coarsely seeded 

 that there is little promise that any thing valuable can be developed 

 from this source. 



The genus Prunus, as now received, is more comprehensive than 

 formerly, and is made to include peaches, apricots, plums and cherries. 

 The peach {Prunus Persica), the garden plum {Prunus domestica), 

 and the two cultivated cherries {Prunus avium and Prunus cerasus) 

 sometimes escape from cultivation and grow wild, but they can 

 scarcely be said to be thoroughly naturalized. Two wild plums bear 

 edible fruit. The beach plum {Prunus marittma), as its name im- 

 plies, grows only along or near the seashore. It is sometimes a low 

 spreading bush one or two feet high, sometimes four or five feet high. 

 Its fruit is from six to twelve lines in diameter and, like other plums, 



