1S4 SYSTEMATIC J'OMOLOGY 



variety. Its very late and lon<:: season gives it importance for 

 home plantations. The i)lants are deep rooted, hence probably 

 more resistant to drou«i:ht than any other blackberry. The plants 

 root at the tips, the chief method used in propagating. The 

 canes are so heavily armed with thorns that picking is a most 

 unpleasant task. 



A variety grown more or less in New Jersey, variously known 

 as Diamond, Black Diamond, Star, Wonder, Ewing Wonder, and 

 Athmtic Dewlicrry, is probably a seedling of this species. The 

 much advertised Himalaya blackberry is a related species. 



De\vherries 



270. Dewberries and blackberries compared. — A dewberry is 

 a trailing blackljcrry with the following differences : Dewberries 

 ripen earlier than blackberries and they are further separated 

 by the flower- and fruit-clusters. In true dewberries, the flowers 

 are few and scattered; in the true blackberries, the clusters are 

 dense. This distinction in flower-clusters does not always hold, 

 and there are hybrids between the two in which these characters 

 are confused. A further distinction is in the method of propa- 

 gation. Dewberries, in nature or under cultivation, are propa- 

 gated from tips, while blackberries naturally reproduce them- 

 selves from suckers, and under cultivation are propagated from 

 suckers or from root-cuttings. Here, also, there are exceptions 

 as the Evergreen and Himalaya blackberries (which, however, 

 are not true blackberries) and several hybrids between the black- 

 berries and dewberries are propagated from tips. There are many 

 intermediate forms, making it difficult to separate the two fruits. 



271. History of cultivated dewberries. — Dewberries are 

 American fruits recently domesticated, for their cultivation as 

 commercial crops did not begin until toward the close of the 

 nineteenth century, although named varieties go back to the 

 middle of the century. It is hardly correct to speak of them as 

 domesticated plants, for many of the varieties have been 

 brought to the gardens from woods and fields, and in the garden 

 they behave more like wild than domesticated subjects, — the 

 most uncertain and unmanageable of all small-fruits. However, 

 the dewberry is a most important addition to pomology, as the 

 fruits ripen earlier, and are larger, handsomer, and better 



