THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



PART I 



THE BRAMBLE FRUITS 

 CHAPTER I 



THE EVOLUTION OF CULTIVATED RASPBERRIES 



Four groups of raspberries, each with many varieties, are commonly 

 grown in North America. These are, in order of introduction to cultiva- 

 tion: The European red raspberry, derived from the wild red raspberry of 

 Europe, Riibits idaeus; the American red raspberry, the cultivated form of 

 the American red raspberry, R. idaeus stn'gosiis; the black raspberry, or 

 blackcap, sometimes called the thimbleberry, also a cultivated native, 

 R. occidental is: and the purple-cane raspberries, hybrids between varieties 

 of the two reds and the black raspberry. It will be interesting to trace the 

 evolution of these four raspberries. 



THE RED RASPBERRY IN EUROPE 



The red raspberry cultivated in Europe is derived from an Old World 

 species widely and commonly found in the temperate parts of Europe and 

 Asia. It was named Riibiis idaeus by Linnaeus from Mount Ida in Greece, 

 though probably not more commonly fotmd on Mount Ida than in many and 

 vast regions in other parts of the Old World. It is now occasionally found 

 wild as an escape from cultivation in the United States, and no doubt has 

 freely hybridized with the native red and probably somewhat with the 

 blackcaps of the New World. 



It is idle to speculate as to when the domestication of this raspberry 

 began in Europe. No doubt it crept into fields and was more or less culti- 

 vated from the very beginnings of agriculture in the regions where it grows 

 wild. But it did not attract sufficient attention to be called a cultivated 

 fruit until the sixteenth century or nearly 400 years ago. Even then there 

 seem to have been no named varieties, as with the tree fruits at the same 

 time, and not until a century later do named varieties appear. 



Some horticultural authorities trace the history of this raspberry as a 

 cultivated plant to the ancient Greeks. But there is little to substantiate 

 such a history. It is a matter of importance to determine whether a plant 



