332 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



ago as 1823, under the name of Eubus Enslenii. There 

 is no true trailing form of the bush or common 

 blackberry (page 352). The best distinction between 

 the dewberries and bush blackberries lies in the inflo- 

 rescence or flower clusters. In the dewberries the flower 

 clusters are cymose the center flower opening first, 

 and the flowers are few and scattered. In the black- 

 berries, on the other hand, the clusters are essentially 

 corymbose or racemose the lower or outer flowers 

 generally opening first and the flowers are usually 

 borne in rather dense clusters. The dewberries are 

 also distinguished by propagating from "tips," while 

 the blackberries propagate by suckers. 



All the trailing blackberries, therefore, are specific- 

 ally unlike the bush blackberries. They are all dew- 

 berries. Every one of my readers who has tramped 

 over fields, either in the northern or the southern 

 states, will recall the sprawling, thorny plants, with 

 their little sour fruits and their red -brown autumn 

 foliage. 



Dewberries seem to be first mentioned as a culti- 

 vated fruit in 1863, in a report of the Fruit Growers' 

 Society of Western New York, when it was said that 

 Dr. Miner, of Honeoye Falls, had two varieties in cul- 

 tivation. These varieties were not named. 



The first variety of dewberry to come promi- 

 nently before the public was the Lucretia (Fig. 71). 

 The story of its discovery and introduction is told 

 me by B. F. Albaugh, of Covington, Miami county, 

 Ohio, who introduced it to the trade. A young man 

 named Williams enlisted in the civil war from Miami 

 county, Ohio, During most of his service he was 

 stationed in West Virginia, part of the time near 



