3022 



RUBUS 



RUBUS 



type to one species, R. fruticosus), and on the other 

 hand to make species of the marked departures (Rogers 

 makes more than 100 species and many varieties of the 

 "Rubi fruticosi" of Britain). The herbarium usually 

 provides few checks; the student needs constantly to 

 supplement his specimens with careful observations in 

 the field under many varying conditions, if he is to arrive 

 at an independent judgment on the group. We do not 

 yet know how far the older herbarium definition cor- 

 responds with phylogenetic facts. There is indication 

 that rubi hybridize freely, particularly in the black- 

 berry group, and artificial hybrids are produced easily; 

 but to assume hybridity from the herbarium specimen 

 alone is inconclusive, particularly when we have now 

 learned that intermediateness is not a proof of hybridity 

 and that hybrids may even show little departure from 

 one or the other parent. If to the variableness of plants 



in the wild is to be 

 added the variation 

 under cultivation, the 

 difficulties are intensified 

 if one endeavors to name 

 and separate very closely ; 

 and if very many species 

 are to be made, then it 

 may be practically im- 

 possible to identify the 

 horticultural forms with 

 any of the minutely 

 defined wild species. 

 This difficulty is likely 

 to be little taken into 

 account in the usual 

 study of wild material, 

 and yet it is an obliga- 

 tion of the systematist 

 to serve the horticul- 

 turist; it would be a pity 

 if the feral and domesti- 

 cated forms were not 

 studied harmoniously. If 

 one is to abandon the 

 older practice of de- 

 scribing the main stem- 

 types, then the logical 

 procedure is to name and 

 describe all the marked 

 forms with a Latin name. 

 This procedure, however, 

 relegates the group to the 

 knowledge of the close 



specialist and confuses the subject for others. Whether 

 in certain groups of Rubus, particularly in the black- 

 berry or Eubatus section, we are dealing with a range 

 of hybrids between relatively few species or whether 

 we have a wide range of plastic material out of which 

 marked forms and incipient species are developing by 

 mutation or otherwise, is the question of primary 

 importance to the systematic study of the genus. The 

 long-established habit of species-making naturally leads 

 to the assumption that specific types occur in all genera 

 and that the variations are to be explained on the 

 theory of intermediateness or aberrance; but this 

 hypothesis is yet to be demonstrated. Of course, the 

 difficulties in cultivated Eubatus are not insolvable by 

 careful study in herbarium, garden, and field. 



With these points of view before us, the reader will 

 scarcely expect to find in this account an evaluation of 

 all the species-names that have been given to American 

 rubi in recent years. This task may be undertaken at 

 another time, but it would be of little avail when con- 

 sidering merely the horticultural forms. In assemb- 

 ling the American cultivated blackberries into one 

 group in the following account and the cultivated dew- 

 berries into another, it is not intended to pass on the 

 merits, from the systematic point of view, of any of the 



3487. Rubus Chamaemorus. The 

 cloudberry (X%). No. 1. 



several described species; but in the present state of 

 the case, it is impossible to refer all cultivated forms to 

 the species-names now current, nor is it the purpose of 

 the Cyclopedia to describe all wild species. There is no 

 practicable alternative but to group the horticultural 

 forms at least until such time as the subject is cleared 

 up; and this is done under Nos. 60 and 61. The history 

 of these domesticated groups affords little aid in deter- 

 mining botanical origins, both because the records are 

 themselves imperfect and because the American species 

 had not then been studied critically; the problem must 

 therefore be worked out mostly as a current systematic 

 study. 



Rubus is closely allied to Rosa, from which it differs 

 chiefly in the structure of the flower. In Rosa, the 

 torus or hypanthium is hollow and contains the dry 

 fruits or achenes. In Rubus the torus is convex, conical 

 or elongated, and bears the mostly soft or pulpy fruits 

 on its surface. Rubi are chiefly shrubs with stems 

 (canes) that die after one or two years, but some of 

 them have herbaceous tops. In raspberries and black- 

 berries, the canes bear the second year and then die or 

 become very weak. The fruit is an aggregate of carpels. 

 The drupelets are usually more or less coherent at 

 maturity, the collective body forming the "fruit" or 

 "berry" of horticulturists. In the rasperries, the coher- 

 ent drupelets separate from the torus at maturity, 

 causing the berry to be hollow or concave on the under 

 side. In the blackberries, the coherent drupelets adhere 

 to the torus, which separates at maturity and forms the 

 "core" of the berry. Usually the tops are not long-lived, 

 and commercial plantations require frequent renewal. 



The horticultural and controlled hybrids in Rubus 

 are now many. Raspberry-blackberry crosses have been 

 frequently effected, but they appear to have little 

 popular interest. The illustration (Fig. 3486) shows a 

 hybrid between Fontenay raspberry (R. idseus) and "the 

 common blackberry" of England as shown by Veitch at 

 London in 1897 (G.C. Oct. 2, 1897, from which the 

 illustration is reduced). The fruits were described as 

 of a purplish black color with gray bloom, produced 

 abundantly. 



Relatively few of the rubi have horticultural merit, 

 although some of them are of great importance. As 

 pomological subjects they are more important in North 

 America than elsewhere. Here are grown not only 

 raspberries, which are popular elsewhere, but also great 

 quantities of improved blackberries, a fruit that is 

 less known as a regular cultivated product in other 

 countries. Although the European raspberry, R. idseus, 

 is grown in North America, it is mostly unreliable, and 

 the leading commercial sorts are produced from the 

 native R. occidentalis and R. strigosus and from hybrids 

 of the two. Various Japanese species also produce fruits 

 of value, but none of them has attained much impor- 

 tance in North America. 



Numbers of the species are useful as ornamental sub- 

 jects, particularly the Rocky Mountain R. deliciosus, 

 the brier rose (R. rosaefolius var. coronarius), wineberry 

 (R. phaenicolasius) , and R. cratsegifolius. For its grace- 

 ful finely cut foliage, and sometimes for its fruit, R. 

 laciniatus is frequently grown, particularly in the 

 milder climates where it is practically an evergreen. 

 Some of the unimproved wild species are offered by 

 dealers in native plants as worthy subjects for free 

 borders and rock-gardens. The beauty of most shrubby 

 rubi depends largely on the removal of the canes after 

 they have bloomed once. After flowering, the cane 

 becomes weak or may die outright. It should be 

 removed to the ground. In the meantime other canes 

 have arisen from the root, and these will bloom the fol- 

 lowing year. That is, the stems of rubi are usually more 

 or less perfectly biennial : the first year they make their 

 growth in stature; the second year they throw out side 

 branches on which the flowers are borne; after fruiting, 

 the entire cane becomes weak or dies. Removing 



