60 Agbiculttjeal Experiment Station, Ithaoa, IST. Y. 



The plant has aroused considerable comment in England and a portrait 

 of it was given in the Gardeners^ Chronicle, September 18, 1886; but 

 it is always recommended as an ornamental plant, and never for fruit, 

 so far as I have seen. 



If our wineberrj gives little promise for fruit, the plants never- 

 theless possess decided merit for certain kinds of ornamental planting. 

 The bristly red canes and rich leaves with felt-white color beneath, 

 render the plant very striking; and the bright little fruits remind one 

 of fragile coral beads sprinkled over the plant. These fruits are at 

 first enclosed in the burr-like calyx, and this ' covering is thought to 

 afford the plants a distinct value in keeping insects from the fruit. 

 " The hair}'^, viscous calyx, which covers the berry till it is full grown, 

 effectually repels all insects," Professor Georgeson writes. This may 

 be true; but if the fruit were to develop to the point of commercial 

 usefulness, burrowing insects would undoubtedly find this dense calyx 

 to be an excellent protection from outside attacks. The plant is about 

 as hardy as the common raspberries here, although it failed to endure 

 the winter at Kew, England (near London).* 



This interesting plant was first clearly described in 1872, by the 

 Russian botanist, Maximowicz. He reported it as growing in Yezo 

 and Nippon, Japan. A plant of it was sent to Kew in 1875, from the 

 Jardin des Plantes, Paris, and from this Sir J. D. Hooker described 

 the species, with an illustration, in the Botanical Magazine, in 1880. 

 Hooker characterized it as " a singularly handsome bramble," and said 

 that the fruit, '' though eatable, is mawkish." It was early introduced 

 into this country under its proper name of Ruhus phoenicolashcs (the 

 specific name meaning "purple-red hairy"), and was sold by EIl- 

 wanger & Barry in 1881. I also received seeds of it from the 

 orient four or five years ago. P. J. Berckmans, President of the 

 American Pomological Society, speaking of the wineberry as having 

 been figured in 1877, adds that it "was known in Holland for a gener- 

 ation before, and cultivated simply as a curiosity in many gardens, the 

 fruit being devoid of any value. Still the new comer may be a form 

 of the well-known sort with better fruit, and if so I will watch it 

 with some interest, as I had known it for nearly fifty years." f I have 

 grown the plants sold by EUwanger & Barry by the side of the Wine- 

 berry from Childs, and they are both Rubus phcbnicolasius. E. S. 

 Carman has been able to cross this plant with " both the blackberry 

 and the rose." \ 



* W. Watson in Garden and Forest, v. 66 (1893). 



f Quoted in American Gardening, xiv. 246 (Apr. 1893). 



X Proc. 6th Conv. See. Am. Fl. 92 (1890). 



