CONFUSION IN NOMENCLATURE 367 



of this book, until I could personally examine the original speci- 

 mens. I have now had the opportunity of examining the speci- 

 mens of Linnaeus and Aiton; also those of Willdenow and Link 

 at Berlin, and of Michaux at Paris ; and through the courtesy of 

 Professor Dr. Beck, I have obtained drawings and full notes of 

 the specimens of Trattinnick at Vienna. 



Having now seen the original types of the American black- 

 berries and dewberries, I am able to make a new disposition of 

 the species. Linnaeus' Rubus Canadensis is unmistakably the 

 thornless blackberry, which was described in 1891 by Britton as 

 Rubus Millspaughii (p. 323). Aiton's Rubus villosus is unmistak- 

 ably the dewberry of the North, the plant to which we have 

 heretofore applied the name Rubus Canadensis. His specimens 

 are mostly sterile shoots, and are from plants which were grown 

 in the Kew gardens. These specimens are shown in the illus- 

 tration on page 372. Ordinarily the dewberry is not villous, and 

 the name, therefore, is a misnomer; but Aiton made the name 

 because the tips of the verdurous shoots of the dewberry contain 

 a villous pubescence. These leafy tips of the dewberry are 

 rarely seen in herbaria, and it is, therefore, not strange that 

 the specimens of Aiton have been misunderstood ; but the 

 specimens are nevertheless unmistakably the dewberry. 



While the northern dewberry now has a name (Rubus villosus), 

 the common high-bush blackberry is left nameless. Our next 

 resource, therefore, is to look up the supposed synonyms of the 

 high-bush blackberry. The Rubus inermis described by Willdenow 

 in 1809, and credited by him to North America, is one of these 

 synonyms. The specimens in the Berlin herbarium are unmis- 

 takably a spineless form of Rubus ulmifolius of Greece! This 

 name is, therefore, disposed of. The next name in order of pub- 

 lication is the Ritbus argutus of Link, published in 1822. Link's 

 specimens in Berlin are well preserved, and are unmistakably the 

 form of high -bush blackberry which we have known as Riibun 

 frnmltixHN. This plant should be regarded as a good species; and 

 since Rubus argutus was published two years earlier than fron- 

 dostts, that name must stand. Two rubi were described by 

 Rafinesque in his "Florula Ludoviciana" in 1817 Rubus angu- 

 lahis and Rnl>n* nitiilnx. Rafinesque left no specimens, and his 

 descriptions are so meager that it is utterly impossible to deter- 



