344 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



them from Russia, but I fail to find anything in the 

 botanical features of the plant which leads me to sus- 

 pect any other than an American origin. 



LUCRETIA'S SISTER, discovered, or at least intro- 

 duced, by J. B. Treedway, of Brandt, Miami county, 

 Ohio, about 1886. I grew it in 1887, and a sprig of 

 the plant is illustrated in the "American Garden" for 

 February, 1890. It appeared to possess no value with 

 me, and I have not grown it since. It appears never 

 to have attained to any reputation. 



GEER, discovered in a wood -lot upon the property 

 of a Mrs. Geer, of Plainfield, Livingston county, Mich., 

 by F. L. Wright, a horticulturist of that place. Plants 

 were transferred to the garden in 1887, but it is not 

 generally introduced. It is a small berry, but a fair 

 cropper. 



MA YES, or AUSTIN. This berry, with which I have 

 small acquaintance, seems to be a large and strong form 

 of Bttbus vittosus (common dewberry) . It is a Texan 

 variety, and was first described in the "Horticulturist," 

 Pilot Point, Texas, for December, 1889. It is said to 

 be "a supposed cross between the common dewberry 

 and the native Texas blackberry." The history of this 

 berry is given me as follows by Dr. A. M. Ragland: 



"About the year 1879 I purchased a hundred acre 

 tract of land three miles east of Pilot Point, on Pecan 

 creek. South of this and joining it was a tract which 

 was purchased about two years later by John Mayes. 

 There was only a wire cross fence between the farms. 

 On both of these tracts of land, east of Pecan creek, 

 there were twenty -five or thirty acres covered with 

 dewberry and the wild Texas or Dallas blackberry. 

 These dewberries were the common dewberry found 



