288 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



English Red was the prototype ? This was called Ru- 

 bus Americanus by Prince in 1831, and his Rubus Penn- 

 sylvanicus is likely the same type. A. S. Fuller appears 

 to have been the first author to separate this class of 

 garden berries. He calls them the "purple -canes," and 

 characterizes them as follows : " The principal differ- 

 ence between the varieties of the black -cap and purple- 

 cane is in the fruit. The first, as is well known, has a 

 rather dry, tough fruit, with a peculiar flavor. Its 

 grains are numerous and very irregular in size. The 

 fruit of purple -cane, as a rule, is rather soft, juicy, 

 often very brittle, the grains separating very readily ; 

 color varying from light red to dark brownish purple, 

 but never black ; the flavor mild and agreeable, but 

 entirely distinct from those of the true black rasp- 

 berry." I think that some of the sorts which have 

 been referred to Rubus Idceus belong to this type, and 

 also the Doolittle's Red -flavored Black, which Mr. 

 Fuller refers to the true black -caps. I am convinced 

 that it is the most important type of raspberry known 

 for America. From pure red raspberries, or Rubus 

 strigosus, we appear to have obtained fewer varieties 

 than is commonly supposed ; Cuthbert appears to me 

 to be the first decided advance in that species. 



In 1869, Professor C. H. Peck studied certain wild 

 raspberries in New York, and used the name Rubus 

 neglectus for what he took to be a distinct natural 

 species. The following year, C. F. Austin, writing of 

 northern Jersey plants, in the "Bulletin of the Torrey 

 Botanical Club," speaks as follows of this raspberry : 

 " R. neglectus, Peck, a hybrid, I have no doubt, between 

 R. strigosus and R. occidentalls, occurs in Orange 

 county, but seldom more than one bush in a place ; it 



