RASPBERRIES— SPECIES, HISTORY, E7V. 201 



In America, two well-known and distinct species are en- 

 riching our gardens and gracing our tables with their health- 

 ful fruit. We will first name R. Strigosus, or the wild red 

 raspberry, almost as dear to our memory as the wild straw- 

 berry. It grows best along the edge of woodlands and in 

 half-shadowy places that seem equally adapted to lovers' 

 rambles. 



Nature, too, in a kindly mood, seems to have scattered 

 the seeds of this fruit along the road-side, thus fringing the 

 highway in dusty, hot July with ambrosial food. 



Professor Gray thus describes the native red species : 

 " R. Strigosus, Wild Red R. Common, especially North ; 

 from two to three feet high ; the upright stems, stalks, etc., 

 beset with copious bristles, and some of them becoming weak 

 prickles, also glandular ; leaflets oblong-ovate, pointed, cut- 

 serrate, white-dov/ny beneath, the lateral ones (either one 

 or two pairs) not stalked ; petals as long as the sepals ; 

 fruit light-red, tender and watery, but high flavored, ripen- 

 ing all summer." 



The second great American species, R. Occidefitalis, will 

 be described hereafter. Since this book is not designed to 

 teach botany, I shall not refer to the other species, — R. 

 Triflorus, R. Odoratus, R. Nutkanno, etc., — which are of 

 no practical value, and, for the present, will confine myself 

 to the propagation and cultivation of R. Idceus and R. Stri- 

 gosusy and their seedlings. 



PROPAGATION. 



Usually, varieties of these two species throw up suckers 

 from the roots in sufficient abundance for all practical pur- 

 poses, and these young canes from between the hills or rows 

 are, in most instances, the plants of commerce, and the 



