198 
AN ENGLISH NAME FOR THE BERRY 
The species has, of course, no com- 
mon name in English as yet. On those 
few occasions when it has been men- 
tioned in the United States, it has 
usually been referred to as the Giant 
Blackberry of Colombia. Since the 
fruit is not black and the plant differs 
in habit from the cultivated black- 
berries of the North, I believe it would 
be appropriate to introduce the species 
into horticulture not as the Giant 
Blackberry, but as the Colombian 
Berry; thus doing honor to Colombia, 
and at the same time identifying the 
species permanently with its native 
home, and distinguishing it from nu- 
merous ‘“‘giant’’ blackberries which 
have been and will be introduced into 
horticulture in the United States. 
The term ‘Colombian berry” is in 
conformity with the nomenclature used 
in this genus, in which we already have 
loganberry, salmon berry, Northey 
berry, and so on. 
DESCRIPTION OF PLANT 
The plant, which does not form a 
compact bush in most instances, but 
sends up scattered shoots from under- 
ground stems, is half-climbing in habit. 
By proper training it could probably 
be made to form a shapely bush, or at 
least the canes could be so pruned as 
not to require any support. In the 
wild state, many of the canes grow half 
erect, while others scramble over the 
nearby vegetation. ° 
The stems reach a maximum length 
of about nine or ten feet. Near the 
ground they are commonly half an inch 
thick, the diameter growing less toward 
the upper portion of the stem. They 
are light green in color, covered with 
short glandular reddish hairs, and 
abundantly armed with short, stiff, 
very slightly recurved thorns broad at 
the base. 
A pair of leaf-like, clasping stipules, 
about an inch in length and breadth, 
is found at the base of each of the 
leaves. The latter are normally tri- 
foliate, and up to more than a foot in 
length. The petiole is up to six inches 
The Journal of Heredity 
long, slightly grooved above, thorny 
and hairy like the canes. The petiolules 
of the lateral pair of leaflets are one- 
fourth to one-half inch long, that of 
the central or terminal leaflet one to 
two inches long. The leaflets are 
commonly oblong-ovate, elliptic, or 
ovate in outline, subcrenate, three to 
six inches long, cordate at the base and 
acute to shortly acuminate at the apex, 
bright green and very finely hairy 
above, paler beneath, with fine hairs 
only on the nerves. The leaf-margin 
is dentateserrate. 
The small, axillary or terminal ra- 
cemes rarely carry more than five 
flowers. Frequently a leaf-axil gives 
rise to but one fruit, and clusters of 
more than two are rare, and usually 
terminal. The calyx is very prominent, 
the petals obovate in outline, nearly 
one-half inch long, and light rosy- 
purple in color. 
FRUITS OF REMARKABLE SIZE 
The fruits vary from slender oblong 
to broad oblong, ovoid, or cordiform in 
shape, and at maturity are one to two 
and a half inches long, by three 
quarters of an inch to an inch and a 
half in greatest breadth. In color they 
are light crimson, tending to become 
wine-colored when overripe. They 
are composed of a large number of 
relatively small drupelets surrounding 
a large fleshy, succulent torus which 
extends nearly to the apex of the 
aggregate fruit, and at maturity often 
separates from the drupelets, which 
cohere loosely inter se. In transverse 
outline the fruit is often four- or five- 
angled. At maturity it is rather firm 
in texture, not as juicy as most of the 
cultivated blackberries, and of a pleas- 
ant subacid flavor (quite acid until 
the fruit is fully ripe) perhaps suggest- 
ing that of the loganberry more than 
that of the cultivated blackberries. 
The receptacle or torus can be eaten 
along with the drurelets, but when it 
comes away readily it is often removed 
before the fruits are eaten (as in the 
raspberry), and fruits in this condition 
are often sold in the market. 
