84 THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



under R. idmifoliiis Focke. A double-flowered, rather ornamental form 

 {R. rusticaniis flore pleno) is cultivated in collections, but it is rather tender 

 and apt to suffer severely in our winters. It is sometimes found under the 

 names R. spectabilis flore pleiw and R. fruticosus flore albo pleno. 



According to the late R. A. Rolfe, Kew, R. rusticaniis is one of the 

 parents of the ciiltivated variety Mahdi, which was raised by Messrs. J. 

 Veitch & Sons, at Langley, from the raspberry Belle de Fontenay crossed 

 with the blackberry common in hedges at Langley. 



The variety Mahdi has been crossed repeatedly at this Station with 

 various other varieties. The seedlings of a cross between Mahdi and Herbert 

 (raspberry) were partly like raspberry with pinnately 5-f oliolate leaves and 

 partly like the blackberry in habit. The seedlings of Mahdi x Lucretia are 

 of dewberry habit with the leaves digitately 3- to 5-f oliolate. Other crosses 

 were Mahdi x (Mahdi x Lucretia), Mahdi x Agawam, Mahdi x Phenomenal, 

 Mahdi x Mersereau, and Mahdi x Rubus odoratus. None of these crosses 

 are of any pomological value. 



Robus procerus. Muell. in Boulay Rone. Vosg. No. 6, 7. 1864; Bailey Gent. Herb. 

 1:196. 1923. 



R. hedycarpus Focke, subspecies procerus. Focke Spec. Rub. 3: (386) 162. 1914. 



A huge, very thorny blackberry; canes several meters long and 3-4 cm thick, angled 

 and furrowed, thinly downy or pubescent when young, soon becoming glabrous; prickles 

 along the angles, numerous, long, and stout, straight or mostly hooked and compressed. 

 Petioles stout, longer than the lower leaflets, glabrescent, \vith many smaller, broad-based, 

 hooked prickles; stipules subular. Leaflets 5, rather firm, wintergreen, dark green above 

 and with dense adpressed whitish felt underneath, sharply simply or in the upper half 

 doubly serrate, teeth ovate, shortly mucronate; leaflets obovate, shortly pointed or con- 

 tracted into a short point, the tenninal one rovmdish obovate, with a long petiolule, lateral 

 ones smaller, narrower, shorter stalked, like the still smaller, almost sessile lower ones some- 

 what oblique; petiolules and midveins pubescent and very prickly. Inflorescence large, 

 panicled, white tomentose and prickly; flowers numerous, 25 mm across; stamens and pistils 

 niimerous. Fruit black, firm, edible. 



Western Europe; France and along the Rhine. 



To this species belongs the cultivated variety Theodor Reimers, origi- 

 nated in 1889 by Garteninspector Reimers at Hamburg, now widely 

 cultivated in Germany, and introduced into the United States and 

 re-christened as Himalaya. Hybrids were raised at Geneva between the 

 Himalaya and Lucretia (dewberry). Strawberry Flavored blackberry is a 

 hybrid of the Himalaya and the Cuthbert raspberry. Crosses were made 

 at Geneva between Strawberry Flavored and Lucretia (dewberry) and 

 also with Sn^^der (blackberry). 



