I80 THE SMALL FRUITS OF NEW YORK 



CHAPTER V 



THE EVOLUTION OF CULTIVATED BLACKBERRIES AND 



DEWBERRIES 



The blackberries and dewberries under cultivation come from several 

 species of Rubus. The common varieties of these two fruits are all natives 

 of America and spring from American species of Rubus. Two little-known, 

 but quite distinct var eties, Oregon Evergreen and Himalaya, grown for 

 their fruit and as ornamentals, are introductions from the Old World. 

 Both the blackberry and the dewberry are commonly cultivated only in 

 North America, and here their culture is but begun, their history as we 

 shall see, being the briefest of that of any of the small fruits Yet they have 

 become in the few years of their domestication important garden and com- 

 mercial crops in America, and their cultivation is spreading to other parts 

 of the world. The chapter on the botany of bramble fruits shows that the 

 several species of blackberries and dewberries are widespread on this con- 

 tinent, still little known, that some remain to be brought under cultivation, 

 and that hybridization promises much. 



Before further discussion of these two frtiits it is necessary to distinguish 

 as best can be done between the two. Cultivated blackberries are erect 

 perennial plants bearing black or occasionally white fruits which do not 

 separate from the juicy receptacle, the last-named character separating 

 them from raspberries which fall from a dryish receptacle when ripe. Dew- 

 berries are usually distinguished in the garden from blackberries in being 

 procumbent instead of erect plants. Foliage, flowers, inflorescence, and 

 the many minor characters are various in the two types of fruit according 

 to the several species to which varieties belong. Another distinction 

 between blackberries and dewberries is usually found in the flower clusters 

 of the two fruits. The lower or outer flowers in the blackberry open first 

 and the inflorescence is therefore corymbose or racemose. In the dewberry, 

 the center flowers open first and are few and scattered, so that the inflor- 

 escence is a cyme rather than a corymb or raceme. Still another distinction 

 commonly found is that in nature dewberries propagate from tips whereas 

 blackberries propagate from suckers. 



THE DOMESTICATION OF THE BLACKBERRY 



The blackberry, in one or another of its many species, is indigenous 

 in most temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, and in this great zone 



