DEWBERRY 83 



varieties ; while another requires us to believe that we 

 have in Britain nearly fifty difFerent kinds of blackberry ! 



The leaves of the blackberry are beautifully varied in 

 colour in the Autumn, being anything from strong orange 

 yellow to crimson, or purple, or rich brown, all these colours 

 being often found exquisitely mottled and combined on 

 one leaf, while the flowers, of delicate pink and beautiful 

 satin-like texture, are to the full as attractive. One very 

 pleasing feature, too, in the blackberry is that its flowering 

 and fruiting stages are of long duration, so they liberally 

 overlap, and one may at almost any time during the 

 Summer and Autumn find the plant in full flower and 

 yet showing its fruit in abundance, from the earliest little 

 green berries, or the larger and redder ones, to the full- 

 grown luscious fruit. 



Blackberries eaten when ripe are very refreshing and 

 grateful to the taste, but before this are sour and astringent. 

 An excellent preserve is made from them ; those who have 

 assisted in gathering the fruit will scarcely need to be told 

 that the plant throws out long arched stems, and that these 

 are liberally provided with strong hooked prickles. These 

 long flexible branches root again on touching the ground, 

 and greatly assist in increasing the plant. One that we 

 have trained on our own garden wall grows many feet in a 

 season, and if not presently checked will entirely monopolise 

 it. Hundreds of pounds weight of fruit have been 

 gathered from this plant during some years of occupancy. 



DEWBERRY (Rubus C^sius) 

 The Dewberry, an allied species, has more slender 

 branches, and does not flower so freely as the blackberry. 



