ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS 28 1 



deserves, for much labor and expense were bestowed on these 

 shade-loving berries before varieties were developed that would 

 thrive at all in the open. 



But the troubles of the cultivators were fully equaled by those 

 of the botanists, who have floundered in a sea of confusion in the 

 endeavor to fix lines of classification that would separate and de- 

 scribe all the forms of these exceedingly variable races, which 

 range all the way from the high-bush blackberry of the northern 

 "clearings " to the creeping dewberries of the open, both of which 

 have finally yielded to cultivation and given useful varieties, but 

 only well within the recollection of men yet in middle age. 



This confusion grew worse instead of better till Bailey (1898) 

 untangled the matter and proposed names and descriptions, 

 which, for the first time, fix the botanical character of our native 

 and cultivated blackberries. 1 



The cultivated varieties trace to two strains of a single species, 

 though many others are described and named, merging by almost 

 imperceptible gradations into the dewberries. These two strains 

 are the following : 



1. Rubus nigrobaccus, the Rubus villosus of many. This is 

 the common high-bush, long-clustered, rich-flavored blackberry 

 of the northern woods and clearings, extending as far south as 

 the mountains of North Carolina and as far west as Kansas. 

 The fruit of this species is the best of all the blackberries, and is 

 preferred by all lovers of fruit, from birds on the one hand to 

 bears and boys upon the other. It was exceedingly shy of civi- 

 lization, but has consented to produce a few varieties, of which 

 the Taylor and Ancient Britain are considered by Bailey to be 

 examples. 



2. Rubus nigrobaccus var. sativus, the short-clustered, loose- 

 seeded blackberry of the open fields. Strangely enough, however, 



1 This matter is discussed here at some little length, partly to fix names, 

 but more especially to show the student the troubles of classification, 

 troubles that arise by the overlapping of closely related strains. The full 

 text of Bailey's excellent work will be found in " Evolution of our Native 

 Fruits," pp. 366-385. 



