Edible Wild Fruits of New York. 



SO 



has a bloom. It is of a pleasant flavor and is sometimes made into 

 preserves. The valuable character of the plant is its ability to grow 

 and fruit abundantly in very poor, sandy soil, even the shifting sands 

 of the seashore, where other species would fail. 



The wild red plum or yellow plum (Prunus Americana) is common 

 in many parts of the State. It is usually clothed -with a profusion of 

 blossoms in the spring, but it often fails to perfect its fruit. There 

 are varieties which bear differently colored fruit, red, yellow or black. 

 The edible quality and showy character of the fruit as well as the fine 

 display of the blossoms make the tree an attractive one and have led 

 to attempts to cultivate it. It matures its fruit early, except in very 

 cool localities, and is hardy, on which account it is desirable for the 

 colder, northern parts of the State, where the summer is short. The 

 Wild Goose plum advertised by some nurserymen is probably derived 

 from this species. There is reason to believe that valuable varieties 

 may be developed from it, both because of its variability and wide 

 geographical range, and because of the improvement already mani- 

 fested in its fruit under the influence of cultivation. 



Of wild cherries we have four species, and though the fruit of all of 

 them may be called edible, it can in no case be said to be very good. 

 The wild red cherry (Prunus Pennsylvania) is locally known as bird 

 cherry, pin cherry and fire cherry. It is a small tree which springs up 

 freely and grows quickly on newly-cleared land in hilly or mountainous 

 districts, but the fruit consists of a very thin layer of pulp over a com- 

 paratively large stone. The wild black cherry {Pyrus serotina) grows to 

 a much larger size, so that its trunk is valuable for lumber. Its fruit 

 grows in elongated clusters, or racemes, and is about the size of a pea. 

 It has a peculiar sub-acid flavor, but is scarcely desirable as an article 

 of food. The choke cherry (Prunus Virginiana) is plentiful in some 

 localities, but its fruit is scarcely eatable unless thoroughly ripe, and 

 even then it has a peculiar astringency that causes an unpleasant >m- 

 sation in the throat. A variety is found upon the western plains that 

 is said to have a much sweeter and more pleasantly flavored fruit. 

 All these species are sometimes infested by the black-knot fungus, 

 and are thus a source of infection to cultivated plums and cherries. 

 The sand cherry, or dwarf cherry (Prunus pumila), though but a 

 small shrub, bears a larger fruit than the other species, but it is often 

 transformed into a peculiar inflated condition known as "bladder 

 plums." This is due to the attacks of a parasitic fungus. A similar 

 disease sometimes attacks the red plum also. We are therefore obliged 

 to write "unpromising" after each of our indigenous cherries. 



