NEW YORK EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 379 



fore necessary, before proceeding to a discussion of their horticultural 

 values, to distinguish their botanical characteristics. A year ago I made 

 an attempt to discover the botanical features of the dewberries, and the 

 results were published in the American Garden for November, 1890, and 

 February, 1891, the former issue containing the first accurate drawing of 

 the Lucretia. The main features of the present discussion of the botany 

 of the dewberries are drawn from those papers. 



In common speech, the word dewberry is applied to any trailing black- 

 berry. There are several distinct species or types of trailing blackberry, 

 with only three of which we need to concern ourselves at present. It 

 would seem as if the dewberries could be at once distinguished from the 

 true or bush blackberries by their trailing habit, but there are some forms 

 of wild blackberry which are low and decumbent. The botanies even 

 describe a true trailing form of the bush blackberry (var. humifusus), but 

 I am convinced that this is an error. This variety appears to have been 

 founded upon a dewberry itself. There appears to be no true trailing form 

 of the bush or common blackberry. The best distinction between the 

 dewberries and bush blackberries lies in the inflorescence or flower clusters. 

 In the dewberries the flower clusters are cymose — the center flower open- 

 ing first, — and the flowers are few and scattered. In the blackberries, on 

 the other hand, the clusters are essentially corymbose or racemose, — the 

 lower or outer flowers generally opening first — and the flowers are usually 

 borne in rather dense clusters. The dewberries are also distinguished by 

 propagating from "tips," while the blackberries propagate by suckers. 



The three common species of dewberry are Rubus Canadensis, R. 

 hipisdus, and R. trivialis. The first two are northern species and the 

 last southern. 



Rubus hispidus is a very slender plant, rarely rising at all above the 

 surface of the ground, and growing both in swamps and upon barren sand. 

 The leaflets are obovate, stiff, and shining above. The flowers are few 

 and very small, and the fruit is small and usually red. The species appears 

 to posses no value as a fruit, and yet it is often confounded with Rubus 

 Canadensis, which is the parent of some of our cultivated varieties. 

 Rubus Canadensis, to which the term dewberry is usually restricted in 

 the north, is much like the southern dewberry, Rubus trivialis, in appear- 

 ance. The chief distinguishing points are these : .. ; 



Rubus Canadensis or northern dewberry: Main stems or oanes rather 

 sparsely and slightly prickly; leaves thin and deciduous, either destitute 

 of prickles or bearing only weak ones, and more or less hairy ; leaflets 

 ovate; sepals often prolonged and leaf -like, and sometime lobed. 



Rubus trivialis or southern dewberry: Main canes mostly thickly beset 

 with stout prickles; leaves firm and nearly or quite evergreen, smooth or 

 very nearly so, the petioles or midribs usually bearing stout prickles ; 

 leaflets oval-oblong or almost lanceolate and small; sepals not prolonged 

 nor cut. This species is common from Delaware to Florida ahd Texas on 

 the sandy lands. The canes often grow ten or fifteen feet in length. It 

 is variable, and attractive varieties are often found. Some forms have 

 even been mentioned as possessing value as ornamental plants. 



The northern dewberry is a very variable species. In any locality where 

 it grows in abundance a number of unlike forms may usually be found. 

 Some of the forms are probably worthy of botanical names. To this species 

 or its botanical varieties most of the cultivated dewberries belong. It is 

 readily divided into three sections or sub-types. 



