Vol. 37 No 8 
BULLETIN 
OF THE 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
eee 
AUGUST, 1910 
Have we enough New England blackberries ? 
EUGENE P. BICKNELL 
What are we to believe about our wild blackberries? Has 
nature bestowed on our flora really many more than those few 
well-accredited species which have come down to us from our 
botanical forefathers, or are our woods and fields crowded with 
the brave number which recent years have spread on the botanical 
page and which, by the token of their array, may yet be infinitely 
multiplied ? 
Our wise forefathers in the restraint of their learning were 
cautious in their treatment of this suspiciously unconventional 
group of plants—too cautious, it may be, and perhaps not so 
wisely restrained after all. Quite possibly their example of con- 
servatism carried its influence too securely into the widened out- 
look of the present day and some form of reaction was predestined 
to follow in the accounting. Be this as it may, the spell has finally 
been broken, and lo,—the fragments! 
What is the blackberry situation at this hour? It is indeed 
an unhappy heritage. Where angels had feared to tread the 
ground has been traversed, and so unforbearingly, notwithstanding 
the briers, that not any semblance of a pathway has been suffered 
to exist. 
My study of the flora of Nantucket in course of publication 
has led me, reluctant, into the general blackberry problem. No 
evasion was possible. Many unusual forms of blackberries are 
found on Nantucket and, in order to discuss them at all, it was 
necessary first to determine whether any or all of them had been 
[The BULLETIN for July, 1910 (37: 345-392) was issued 29 Jl 1910.] 
393 
