BLACKBERRIES AND RASPBERRIES. 401 



"Priuce — It came from the Catskill Mountains. I found it growing wild 

 there thirty or forty years ago. 



"Bergen — Mr. Prince is entirely inistaken*in regard to the Purjile Cane. 

 It was raised in my vicinity much earlier than thirty years ago. 



Prince — The Purple Cane has been cultivated ever since my childhood, at 

 least. I was merely mentioning that I realized its origin when I visited 

 those mountains. I don't mean to say it was originally found thirty years ago. 

 It grows wild all over the north. 



" Bergen — The Purple Cane requires no protection on Long Island." 



The fact of the tendency of this variety, and also of some more recent ones, 

 such as Ellisdale and Ganargua, to root (somewhat reluctantly) from the tips 

 of the branches, as well as their indisposition to increase by suckers, seem to 

 afford good reasons for referring their parentage to the Black Cap (Rubies 

 Occidentalis), while the color of the fruit as well as some of the peculiarities of 

 the wood and foliage indicate a relationship with either Idmus or Strigosus — 

 circumstances favoring the latter. Many botanists, heretofore, have shown 

 decided disinclination to admit the possibilitv of hybridization between species 

 apparently even less remote than these, as proof of which we may refer to the 

 wordy contest, so persistently waged over the question of the genuineness of 

 the Eogers, Allen and other alleged hybrids, between Vitis Vinifera and Vitis 

 Lairusca. 



More recently, however, evidences tending to establish the fact of such 

 hybridization, not in the case of the grape only, but also among other classes 

 of plants, have so accumulated that, if we mistake not, the occasional success 

 of such process, whether artificial or accidental, is pretty generally conceded. 

 The fact of the hybrid origin of even one of the varieties of raspberries above 

 named once admitted, we have opened to us a new, and to our apprehension a 

 very promising field of experiment in the production of new and improved 

 varieties of the raspberry, by combining the hardiness, vigor and productive- 

 ness of the one with the more delicate flavor, texture and coloring of the 

 other. 



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