THE SMALL FRUITS. ] 611 



sugar, and is also useful for making tarts, jams and 

 sweetmeats. The details of cultivation are simple enough. 

 Thick clumps should be thinned out to secure better 

 fruit, the extremities of the caries if too long are trimmed 

 back, and old wood which has fruited, as well as sickly 

 or decayed canes are cut off. The plant flowers in spring 

 and the fruit matures in the course of summer. The 

 raspberry is very little grown in our gardens, and is con- 

 sidered more as a curiosity than as a serviceable fruit. 

 In fact, as a dessert fruit it cannot compare either with 

 the black mulberry or with the strawberry. Several 

 varieties of the raspberry have been introduced from time 

 to time, but their cultivation has been allowed to fall into 

 neglect. 



The Japanese raspberry or Japanese climbing 

 bramble, Rubus phoenicutasius, was introduced by ^the 

 late Professor N. Tagliaferro and soon became fully 

 established wherever it was planted, but failed to arouse 

 interest with the growers. 



The Blackberry or Common Bramble (Rubus fruti- 

 coms, L. ROSACEAE), yields a strongly acid and astrin- 

 gent fruit which is useful for tarts and pies. The plant 

 has many varieties, the variety dalmaticus, Tratt, and 

 the subvariety or form ulmifolius, Schott. being common 

 in our valleys and ravines. Improved sorts have been 

 imported now and then, but the cultivation of this plant 

 has never met with favour. Its culture is simple, and 

 the plant is easily propagated by suckers and cuttings in 

 winter, or by layers throughout the year. The logan- 

 berry, a hybrid between the raspberry and the blackber- 

 ry obtained by Judge Logan in America, has not been 

 introduced in our gardens. 



