BRAMBLES AND THISTLES 241 



unlike any other bramble flower, and making an excel- 

 lent plant for covering bare surfaces, even under trees. 

 I must not dismiss the brambles without some notice 

 of the fruit, which in all the species is wholesome, and, 

 as far as I know them, pleasant, and all more or less 

 ornamental. If we had not the bramble in every hedge 

 we should certainly grow it for the beauty and excel- 

 lence of its fruit ; and we may remember that the 

 dewberry, which used to be considered a distinct 

 species, but is now classed as a variety of the common 

 blackberry, was considered by Shakespeare a fitting 

 plant for Queen Titania to order for her love, and 

 worthy to be placed with apricots, figs, grapes, and 

 mulberries. The raspberry we have brought into our 

 gardens, though it is a true native bramble, and by so 

 doing we have improved the fruit, though in its wild 

 state the fruit is excellent, and in some parts of 

 England so abundant as to give quite a valuable harvest 

 well worth gathering. Of late years the American 

 blackberries have been introduced into our gardens, 

 but with very partial success. They seem to do well 

 in some soils, and to bear good fruit, which comes in 

 the autumn ; but speaking generally, they have turned 

 out failures, and even in America, where they are much 

 cultivated, the latest report is * that in our so-called 

 improvement of fruits we have generally failed to 



