o62 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



advances they will produce fine large berries in plenty, and if the 

 season is mild will be in bearing till the end of November. 



There are a few varieties of raspberries that merit the special 

 attention of those who take more than an ordinary interest in their 

 fruit gardens. The Summer Black was raised half a century ago at 

 Netherfield, in Essex. It is a hybrid between a blackberry and a 

 raspberry, the fruit being purple, and the flavour partaking both of 

 the raspberry and the blackberry.* This is a fruitful and beautiful 

 variety, producing canes of immense strength, dark in colour, and a 

 leafage that, like the fruit, combines the peculiarities of both its 

 parents. Mr. Kivers has cultivated this largely, and from it raised 

 numerous seedlings, some of which are of great value. The Autumn 

 Black is oue of these. Mr. Eivers describes it as the fifth genera- 

 tion from the Summer Black. The fruit of the Autumn Black is of 

 excellent quality, dark purple in colour, and it is in good bearing till 

 quite November. It has this peculiarity, that it produces scarcely any 

 suckers, and hence has to be propagated from seed. By pegging 

 down the shoots it might, no ddubt, be increased in a more certain 

 though less rapid manner ; but the seedlings are, I believe, generally 

 true, so that there is no reason why this fine hybrid should not be 

 more generally known and appreciated than it is. 



The Americans have presented us with several species and varie- 

 ties of Eubus, but they do not appear as yet to have succeeded in 

 this country. The best of them is the Lawton Blackberry, also 

 known as New Kochelle and Seacor's Mammoth. It is of immensely 

 strong growth, and produces an abundance of large, oval, jet-black 

 fruit, the flavour of which is very agreeable. Had we not in our 

 hedges a species of Bubus, which is so fruitful and so good that 

 every family in the kingdom might have a share of its produce, we 

 should be glad of these American importations, but having our own 

 blackberry {Ruhcs fruticosus), we scarcely need occupy our limited 

 and highly-rented garden grounds by cultivating blackberries in 

 competition with the hedgerows. 



The habit of the raspberry is to throw up from the root a certain 

 number of shoots, or, as they are called, " canes." These grow one 

 year, the next year produce fruit, and after the fruit has all been 

 ripened they die, and are succeeded by another lot of canes that 

 were growing while those fruited. To prune the raspberry is there- 

 fore a simple aflair enough. In autumn or winter cut away the dead 

 canes, and thin those that are to bear the next season to four or five 

 to each plant or "stool." It is well, also, to shorten these canes 

 according to their strength and the nature of the variety ; five feet 

 may be considered a sufficient length for the strongest canes, and 

 under the most favourable circumstances. Whenever raspberries 

 are taken up, it will be found that their roots run freely in all direc- 

 tions very near the surface ; in fact, after a few years, the soil of a 

 plantation of raspberries becomes a complete felt of fibres. From 

 this we Jearn that to dig amongst them must be very injurious, and 

 in practice the spade should never enter the ground among rasp- 



* It is gaid to be a hybrid, but I doubt if the raspberry and blackberry have ever been 

 actually crossed either way. — S. H. 



