170 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. I, No. 2 
below freezing the vegetative activity in many species of plants that 
have become dormant during summer drought may be resumed at any 
time when a sufficient supply of water is afforded. 
In the case of Prunus eriogyna a copious November rain may start the 
favorably located bushes into activity, so that a small percentage of the 
many flower buds will open in January. Cool nights and light frosts may 
destroy a portion of these buds, but some will set fruit, indicating a fair 
degree of hardiness for this species. At the time of the main flowering 
in March there may be a few scattering, nearly mature fruits, which 
escape the numerous plum curculios and furnish a small supply of seeds 
for germination should the rainfall be inadequate to mature the main 
crop of fruit. 
In seed germination this species differs strikingly from ordinary 
apricots or plums. Germination is rapid, the plants appearing above the 
ground in from 8 to io days. As an example, in a pot of seeds sown in 
sandy soil in a greenhouse on July 31a number of plants were above the 
soil on August 6. One with the plumule 1 cm. long had already sent 
down a taproot of 9 cm. In desert conditions with fruit ripened in May 
germination is necessarily deferred till the autumn or winter rains set in, 
when the quick germination habit is essential to its success. Getting its 
roots down to a zone of permanent moisture, however slight, is the 
necessary thing if the seedling is to survive the dry, hot summer that 
follows. A sufficient leaf expansion to afford the needed root growth is 
all that is necessary and more would only hasten transpiration and waste 
the limited supply of moisture. 
That even the best forms of Prunus eriogyna are far from having the 
quality of cultivated apricots is evident from the appearance of the 
plants, but that 'this desert species of the Pacific slope has very close 
affinities with the true apricot of the Orient can not be doubted. The 
apricot relationship of P. andersonii , with which is placed P. eriogyna , is 
not so evident, yet its convolute leaves, fascicled flowers, and slender- 
stalked fruit with a slight tendency to be fleshy will ally it to the Prunus 
dasycarpa type of the apricot more nearly than to the almond. 
THE CALIFORNIA DESERT ALMOND 
The desert almond, also called the “wild peach” and “wild almond,” 
occupies a range much farther south and east than that of the Nevada 
wild almond, Prunus andersonii. It overlaps the southern range of 
P. andersonii in Nevada and eastern California and that of P. eriogyna 
in southern California. It has been collected near the coast in San Luis 
Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties and as far east as southwestern Utah 
and northwestern Arizona. Its greatest abundance as far as studied is 
along the foothills bordering the Mohave Desert in the neighborhoods 
of Hesperia and Neenach at altitudes of 3,000 to 3,500 feet. The soils 
