THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 9 



there are probably near one hundred acres of land on Long Island appro- 

 priated to its culture. The plants do not throw up suckers during the 

 summer season as most other varieties do, but in the spring, young plants 

 shoot up in great numbers, from the small roots on all sides of the main 

 stock." 



From Prince's description one sees at once from color and vigor of 

 canes, and method of reproduction, that the Common Red, first native 

 raspberry to attain prominence in American gardens, and for more than 

 a century the standard raspberry in the United States, is a hybrid between 

 a red and the wild black of the Atlantic seaboard. It would be interesting 

 to know its history. Did it originate in a garden or in the wild? Where 

 and by whom was it first cultivated? 



Besides the Common Red, Prince describes Red Antwerp, Yellow 

 Antwerp, Barnet, Brentford Red, Tall Red Cane, Short-jointed Cane, 

 Cretan Red, and Prolific Red, eight varieties which either from their 

 history or characters one may feel stire came from the Old World. Three 

 others are natives, of which, Virginia Red, Prince puts in Riibus strigosus 

 where it most certainly belongs. The third native sort, coianting the 

 Common Red as the first. Prince calls the Pennsylvanian, which he received 

 " from a London nursery under the title of Riihus pennsylvanicus but 

 have since found to be identical with plants received from the forests of 

 the State of Maine." Prince may have been mistaken and there is a 

 doubt as to whether this sort comes from the Old World or the New World. 



The fourth native sort is the Canada Red which was advertised in 

 the Prince catalog of 1790. Of it the Pomological Manual'^ says as to 

 history: " I first noticed this variety growing along the road sides, a few 

 miles from Montreal, where the plants are to be met with in great abundance. 

 The fruit is collected from them by the country people, and large quanti- 

 ties sold in the markets." This variety, it would seem from Prince's 

 description, belongs in R. idaeus strigosus, although our author puts it in 

 " R. canadensis. '' This is probably the first pure-bred native red Rubus 

 to be truly domesticated. 



The list of cultivated raspberries changes rapidly now. Many scarcely 

 stirvive introduction. Few last more than two decades. But in the 

 early years of raspberry culture varieties were long lived. In the first 

 edition of Downing, 1845, the varieties are much the same as those listed 

 by Prince in 1832. Prince listed eighteen red raspberries ; Downing twelve. 



» Prince, William Robert Pom. Man. 2 :i68. 1832. 



