For the cold dry northwest, hardly any of our native fruits is of greater promise than the buffalo-berry of that region. As an ornamental plant, it is occasionally grown, but for the production of fruit it has, until recently, attracted but little attention. In its wild state the fruit is used by settlers in the portions of the country where it grows. |The name buffalo-berry is derived from the former custom of eating the berries as a sauce with the meat of the buffalo. The names blood-berry and rabbit-berry have also been applied to it, and it has been called by some writers cornelian cherry, but this name properly belongs to Cornus Mas, a European tree of the dogwood family.

The buffalo-berry occurs mainly along streams on the eastern slopes of the Rocky mountains and the adjoining plains, from the Saskatchewan southward to Colorado. The berries are about the size of small currants, of a 6ne scarlet color, and are produced in such abundance as to give the shrubs late in summer, or early in autumn, a showy appearance. The fruit is quite acid, and is relished by nearly all persons, being esteemed by some superior to currants. The tree is propagated by suckers, cuttings, or seeds. The flowers are dioecious, and the failure to produce fruit under cultivation has sometimes been due to the presence of plants of but one sex. In mild climates, however, it sometimes blossoms so early that no fruit is formed, owing to the flowers being killed by frost.

Wild Crab (Pyrus coronaria).