The Blackberry. 207 



hurt they may do : in any case were they now to be 

 destroyed, the loss would be heavy. They propagate not 

 only by seeds, but in a way very similar to that observ- 

 able in the strawberry and the silver-weed. Most of the 

 brambles may be regarded as a kind of gigantic straw- 

 berry, so far as regards power of self-extension. In 

 autumn, in any shaded wood where brambles and decay- 

 ing leaves abound, the process becomes quite plain to 

 one's observation. The long shoots of the year bury 

 their extreme ends among the litter, and there form semi- 

 bulbous knobs. These during the winter months throw 

 out roots in all directions, and in the spring develop 

 strong shoots, capable, if removed, of an independent 

 existence. We may learn from this how to propagate 

 with ease those beautiful garden varieties of the black- 

 berry which have large double white and double rose- 

 coloured flowers ; also that very interesting albino variety 

 which has fruit of the colour of "white" raspberries, 

 originally mentioned by Ray as growing near Oxford, 

 and which has been noticed quite recently at Dundry, 

 near Bristol, near Chelmsford, and near Penzance. " I 

 met with it to-day," says a lady friend of the author, 

 "when, after rambling over Pradannack Downs, dream- 

 ing delightfully among the waxen heath-bells, and musing 

 over the ancient, time-worn cross, I neared the coast, by 

 a tamarisk-fringed lake, and perplexed over a botanical 

 darling, dear to me, came upon more treasure-trove in 

 the shape of WHITE BLACKBERRIES ! white in the sense 

 one speaks of white grapes, the ripe ones exactly resemb- 



