234 ROSACEA 



the plants about Lexden, in the neighbourhood of Colchester, says, " The 

 boggy ground in which the springs have their rise is covered with low alders, 

 and produces much that is interesting to the botanist. Euhus idceus abounds 

 in it, and when the fruit is ripe presents a temptation to venture on the soft 

 and treacherous soil." In North Wales it is frequent, and in the neighbour- 

 hood of Bettws-y-coed it is almost as plentiful as the blackberry. The 

 greenish white flowers of the plant appear in May and June ; its fruits are 

 smaller than those of the cultivated Raspberry, of which it is the origin, and 

 are either red or yellow. They are very wholesome, and not likely by 

 becoming acid to disagree with delicate persons, while they are considered 

 very salutary in some complaints. The uses of the Raspberry, however, 

 in desserts, in confectionery, in making a pleasant summer beverage when 

 mingled with vinegar, in giving their peculiar flavour to brandy and other 

 liquors, are too well known to require much comment. The Raspberry is a 

 native of most of the countries of Europe, and has its name from Mount Ida, 

 in Crete. It is the Framboisier of the French, the Himbeer sir audi of the 

 Germans, the Braamhoos of the Dutch, the Bovo ideo of the Italians, the Zarza 

 idea of the Spaniard, and Malinik of the Russians. Our forefathers called 

 the fruit Basjns, or Hindberry. Dr. E. D. Clarke says that the manner in 

 which the Raspberry is found in Sweden might afford useful hints as to the 

 mode which should be adopted in its cultivation. Of all places it seems to 

 thrive best among wood-ashes and cinders, as among the ruins of houses 

 which have been destroyed by fire. This traveller also found it most 

 luxuriant in those forests where the Swedes had kindled fires in the wood, 

 and left the land strewed with the ashes of the trees. " In the North of 

 Sweden," this writer says, "neither apples, pears nor plums can be produced 

 by cultivation, but Nature has been boimtiful in a profusion of wild and 

 delicious dainties. No less than six species of Raspberry, besides white, red, 

 and black currants, grow wild in all the forests." He found our common 

 Raspberry abundant in a wild state, and producing highly-flavoured fruit. 

 Wild gooseberry-trees were less common, and four species of whortleberry 

 were decked with plenty of red or black berries, while the soil was covered 

 with this low shrub to a great extent, and the mouths of the children were 

 constantly blackened by eating the fruits. "All round the Gulf of Bothnia," 

 says this writer, " the traveller at this season of the year will see old women 

 and children waiting near the public roads in hopes of meeting passengers 

 to whom they may off'er their large baskets filled Avith raspberries, or 

 whortleberries ; the baskets are made of birch-tree bark." The children 

 followed the carriage continually, and when they received a few pence as 

 payment for their fruits, would endeavour to induce the travellers to accept 

 more, and expressed their gratitude by bowing to the ground. Dr. Clarke 

 had tarts made of the berries thus purchased ; but he adds, that the Swedes, 

 at that time, never made this use of them, probably OAving to the scarcity of 

 sugar. 



In Canada the people commonly take their baskets and go out " berry- 

 ing" in the woods during the Raspberry season. Mrs. Moodie describes 

 some of the shores of Stony Lake as abounding in these fruits, the banks 

 being formed of large masses of limestone^^ on which the rich cardinal flower 



