CALIFORNIA PLANT BREEDING. 



In the summer of 1883 these fruited and there appeared one plant which 

 was undoubtedly a cross between the raspberry and the R. ursinus. The 

 fruit was larger and earlier than the raspberry or any blackberry, except 

 the ursinus, ripening about the middle of May; the appearance of the berry 

 on the surface was something like the raspberry, being less indented and of 

 more even surface than a blackberry; the color a bright glowing red, becom- 

 ing very dark and finally, when dead ripe, of a dull purplish-red color. The 

 berry has a core like the blackberry and parts from the calyx the same as a 

 blackberry. The leaves of the vine are almost identical with the wild Rubus, 

 being somewhat larger. The canes are also like the wild Rubus, but larger 

 and more vigorous ; it has the same small, sharp spines, and, like it, is with- 

 out adventitious root buds, but multiplies from the stolons or tips and from 

 seed. The fruit, when cooked, has the same rich acidity as the wild Rubus, 

 there being only a suggestion of the taste of the raspberry in the cooked 

 fruit, but in the jelly there is a more decided raspberry flavor. This red 

 berry is universally known here as the Loganberry. It is an enormous 

 grower and bearer, there having been gathered in this city full twenty-five 

 pounds of fruit from one plant in one season. In Southern California it is 

 fast displacing all other blackberries. 



The other plants produced at this time, being crosses between the 

 ursinus and the Texas, also developed into an entirely new type of black- 

 berry, most of them of good quality ; equally good for canning and jams as 

 the Loganberry or the wild Rubus, and almost as early in ripening. 



Since 1881 I have planted a good many seeds of this Rubus ursinus 

 fertilized with the Texas Early. About twelve years ago there appeared 

 among these seedlings and it is uncertain from what year's planting it 

 came a remarkable blackberry. The canes are enormous. I have a plant 

 now growing in my grounds which grew one cane or stalk last year, for this 

 year's fruiting, of one hundred and forty-nine feet of fruit wood. This 

 single plant will cover with foliage a wall forty feet long and from six to 

 eight feet wide. The fruit is equally colossal ; berries are frequently found 

 two and one-half inches long. The fruit is similar to that of the wild Rubus, 

 being less sharply acid, and when perfectly ripe is sweet and delicious. This 

 berry I have named the "Mammoth." Its fruit is similar to the Logan- 

 berry, but less acid. The Mammoth fruits perhaps a couple of weeks later 

 than the Loganberry, and is jet black in color. 



The raspberry parent of the Loganberry is, like most raspberries, prone 

 to spread from adventitious rootbuds ; the Texas Early is also a perfect 

 nuisance in that respect. The Rubus ursinus has no adventitious rootbuds, 

 but propagates entirely from the tip. And it is a singular fact that, in 

 the thousansd of seedlings of the Loganberry and of the crosses between 

 the Texas and the ursinus and crosses between plants thus crossed, not a 

 single plant has been found that had adventitious rootbuds, but, like the 

 female ursinus parent, all reproduce from the tips or seed. As is well 

 known, the raspberry has a perfect bi-sexual flower. The Rubus ursinus, 

 sexually, is divided into the male and the female. Such a thing as a bi- 

 sexual flower in the Rubus ursinus is unknown, and it is a characteristic of 

 that plant, growing wild in the woods, while the cane of the male plant 

 is very much smaller and apparently less vigorous than the female, the male 

 ultimately speads in rich soil and completely chokes out the female plants 

 so that in a few years the berry patches become entirely barren, being con- 

 stituted entirely of male plants. It is very noticeable in cases where the 

 woods have been burned over : for the first few years, the burned district will 

 produce many blackberries; in a few years, however, the productive berries 

 entirely disappear and the male berry takes entire possession. 



The flowers of the seedlings which I have grown have been mostly bi- 

 sexual and very large. I never yet have seen a flower of the Loganberry or 

 of any of its seedlings that was not bi-sexual and perfect. Very many, how- 



