312 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



losus var. montanus, but who now ("Bulletin Torrey 

 Club," xxiii. p. 153) regards it as a distinct species, 

 and calls it Rubus AHegheniensis . "Its slender stalks 

 are less prickly than those of the common blackberry," 

 he writes, "and usually reddish, but the chief differ- 

 ence lies in the fruit, which is much smaller, of 

 oblong shape, often narrowed toward the apex (thim- 

 ble-like), scarcely fleshy, and possessed of a peculiar 

 spicy flavor." The flower clusters are shorter than 

 those of the typical high -bush blackberry, but they 

 are of the same kind, and the leaves also retain the 

 distinguishing features of that species. It is probably 

 only a mountain or highland form of the common 

 blackberry. 



A curious variation of the common blackberry is 

 the so-called white blackberry. It has the stems 

 throughout greenish yellow; leaflets much as in the 

 common blackberry in shape and dentation; clusters 

 long and bearing simple bracts, hairy and glandular; 

 fruit small, creamy white or amber -colored. I have 

 known this plant from childhood. It grew sparingly 

 in the woods in western Michigan, and it was 

 occasionally transferred to gardens. In one garden, 

 at least, it has grown for more than twenty years, 

 and it has always retained its characteristics. There 

 is also a patch of it along an old roadside in cen- 

 tral New York, where, except in the light color of 

 the foliage, stems and fruits, it does not appear to 

 differ from the normal high -bush blackberries in the 

 neighborhood. It is generally distributed from New 

 York to Michigan, but appears to be very local. The 

 white blackberries sometimes advertised by nursery- 

 men no doubt belong here. 



