Rbodsora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 2 February, 1900 No. 14 
THE BLACKBERRIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 
Ezra BRAINERD. 
Ir is now somewhat over a year since Professor L. H. Bailey pub- 
lished his admirable revision of the Blackberries of Eastern North 
America. We have had time to consider, in a tentative way, to what 
extent his disposition of the species clears up the difficulties of our 
New England forms, and to get some preliminary notion of the num- 
ber and range of our species. 
The genus is especially interesting because of its economic value. 
Thousands of acres of blackberries are now under cultivation, and the 
improved varieties are a welcome addition to our table delicacies. At 
the same time no group of flowering plants has furnished so many 
stumbling-blocks to the botanists. These two facts have a logical 
connection. For, as Darwin long ago pointed out, those plants that 
reward most the efforts of the horticulturist to improve them, are the 
plants that vary most in the wild state, and consequently most perplex 
the systematic botanist. Indeed, in the history of the blackberry 
problem the horticulturist has in several instances recognized new spe- 
cies and varieties, and named them in advance of the botanist. “ Bar- 
tel,” “Snyder” and * Lucretia" are older names than Awóws invi- 
sus, sativus or roribaccus. 
‘In the Old World the genus is noted for its multiplicity of forms. 
The English bramble, Rudus fruticosus, L., is the analogue of our 
blackberry ; in Hooker’s Flora of the British Islands it is divided into 
twenty-one sub-species, and under these twenty more forms are de- 
scribed as varieties. In Garcke’s Flora of Germany we find thirty- 
eight species and twenty varieties. Our American blackberry is so 
