I90 THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



The canes are trailing or climbing, often attaining a length of 40 or 

 50 feet, viciously armed with large thorns, thick and rigid at the base. 

 The plant is almost unmanageable as a ctdtivated subject, but lends itself 

 admirably as a covering for arbors, porches, fences, and outbuildings. 

 Unfortunately it suckers and spreads so rapidly as to often become a nui- 

 sance. The leaves are much divided, well shown in the color plate of this 

 variety, from a plant growing at Geneva, New York. Three remarkable 

 characters make it unique among its kind. It is evergreen; its season of 

 ripening often covers three months; and it bears enormous crops. Three 

 plants are on record at Corvallis, Oregon, which bore in one season 40 

 pounds each. The berries are of medium size and of attractive appearance, 

 but fall below most cultivated blackberries in quality because of a coppery 

 taste and very large seeds. 



There is now no question but that the Oregon Evergreen came originally 

 from the Old World, and that it is a form of the common European black- 

 berry Rubiis laciniatus. (See the description of this species on page 83.) 

 But the letters to be submitted show that the plant was introduced into 

 Oregon from some of the South Sea islands at an early date in the history 

 of Oregon. Of all brambles, it seems to be one of the most persistent and 

 self-assertive, rapidly becoming a pest in climates where it thrives as in some 

 of the islands of the southern seas and on the Pacific Coast. The following 

 letters written to the senior author' in 1897, and published in Bulletin No. 

 64 of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station, form an interesting 

 account of this berry in Oregon. 



" Replying to your favor of recent date, I beg to say the Evergreen 

 Blackberry originated in the South Sea Islands, where it grows spon- 

 taneously in the wild woods. A Frenchman brought some of them to Oregon 

 and we got plants from him, and have raised and sold them extensively 

 ever since all over this coast, until they have spread even to the Eastern 

 States. We consider them equal in size and quality or flavor to the Law- 

 ton, and very much more productive, as a single plant will, when in good 

 bearing, supply an ordinary family with fruit. We raise them from root 

 cuttings or suckers. They do not ripen as soon as the Lawton, but when 

 they begin to bear, continue to do so imtil cold weather comes on." — H. W. 

 Settlemire, Tangent, Oregon. 



" We have yours of a late date and replying to same will say: We 

 do not know the origin of the Evergreen Blackberry. Have tried to trace 

 it but have never been able to get any reliable information. It has been 



» Z/toA 5to. S«;. 64:51-54. 1899. 



