356 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



of Alameda, a good many years ago, by a pioneer who 

 once owned many acres there. Aughinbaugh removed 

 it to his garden, cultivated and disseminated it. He 

 lost his estate, and died in poverty; a city is built over 

 his pasture lands, but the wild berry vine he trans- 

 planted from under the oak forest which then covered 

 the Almeda shore has preserved his name from obliv- 

 ion. The Aughinbaugh blackberry, as I have grown 

 it from from his original stock, is a beautiful vine of 

 trailing habit, like a dewberry, but with much larger, 

 darker leaves, and of extremely vigorous growth. 

 Being pistillate, it does not bear well unless planted 

 with other varieties. Properly fertilized, on good soil, 

 and well trained on a fence or trellis, its bearing 

 powers are often astonishing, and in quality it is very 

 fine, but it has never become popular. I may add that 

 for some reason the nurseries did not take it up, and 

 one only finds it now in a few old gardens. Still it 

 ought to be more generally distributed. It has been 

 crossed with CrandalPs Early, producing a promising 

 line of seedlings." 



Wickson, in his "California Fruits," says that the 

 Aughinbaugh which is the " most famous" of the native 

 blackberries or dewberries was "propagated and sold 

 by a man of that name about 1875. It achieved some 

 popularity, but, being a pistillate variety, needed asso- 

 ciation with other berries to fertilize it. For this and 

 other reasons it became unpopular, and has been 

 nearly lost sight of." 



Wickson also mak'es the following account of this 

 Rubus vitlfolius: "The most delicious wild fruit of 

 California, and at the same time the most important 

 commercially, is the blackberry. We have one very 



