EUROPEAN BLACKBERRIES 



DEWBERRIES 



273 



The habitat of R. frondosiis is from Canada 

 to Virginia and westward to Kansas. At least 

 five other species are given by Bailey as asso- 

 ciated with this one. 



4. Rubus allegheniensis, Porter. This is a mountain 

 blackberry of medium height or tall, but more or less 

 recurving, with the old canes purplish and armed with 

 stout, slightly curved prickles ; the leaflets are ovate, 

 often glandular, pubescent beneath ; flower-clusters 

 mostly elongated but not leafy ; fruit generally sub- 

 cylindric, rather small, with many small drupelets, and 

 of very good flavor. 



White blackberries, usually amber-colored 

 fruits, while occasionally occurring in other 

 species, most often belong to R. allegheniensis. 

 The habitat is from Canada to North Carolina 

 and westward to Illinois. A sport of this 

 species with dry, abortive fruits is not un- 

 common. Bailey names three other species as 

 usually associated with this blackberry. 



5. Rubus canadensis, Linn. This is another mountain 

 form easily distinguished by its tall, rather weak, 

 usually thornless canes which are erect or recurving ; 

 the leaflets are thin, glibrous on both surfaces, and 

 finely, evenly and sharply toothed ; the flower-clusters 

 are rather long, cylindric, leafy-bracted at the base ; the 

 fruits are subglobose to short-cylindric and composed of 

 large, juicy, somewhat acid drupelets. 



The species is a native of Canada and the 

 northern states southward in the high lands 

 to North Carolina. Bailey says that this 

 species is apparently not represented in do- 

 mestication, the so-called thornless forms being 

 unarmed offshoots of normally thorny black- 

 berries; a robust form, however, from the 

 mountains of West Virginia, which in botanical 

 characters scarcely differs from this species, 

 and is included with it by most botanists, 

 by others put in a separate species, R. Mills- 

 paughii, Brit., is, on the grounds of the New 

 York Agricultural Experiment Station, a most 

 promising subject for domestication, and 

 should receive the attention of pomologists. 



EUROPEAN BLACKBERRIES 



The three following species are exotics of 

 little commercial importance in America; all, 

 however, have been widely advertised, and, 

 while probably never to become important as 

 garden blackberries, are likely to be per- 

 manently represented in America. All are 

 quite distinct from native blackberries, be- 

 cause of their perennial canes, and flowers 

 usually borne on terminal shoots. 



6. Rubus thyrsanthus, Focke. Canes vigorous, sub- 

 erect or decumbent or prostrate when very long, angled 

 and grooved, thorny with flattened, declined or curved 

 prickles, mostly thinly hairy or pubescent ; petioles and 

 midribs recurved, prickly ; leaflets 3-5, thick, green 

 above and white-tomentose beneath, sharply and mostly 

 serrate-dentate ; flower-clusters thrysoid-paniculate, nar- 

 row, short or elongated, sometimes compound, pubescent 

 or tomentose, leafy ; fruit black. 



The species is an inhabitant of central Eu- 

 rope, although much scattered by cultivation. 

 According to Bailey, from whom the above 

 description is taken, the Himalaya blackberry, 

 now much advertised and very generally dis- 

 tributed in the United States, is probably 



referable to this species. If this is the case, 

 it is also the parent of two interesting hybrids 

 with Kittatinny, a native blackberry, made by 

 J. M. Mack, Fallbrook, California, plants of 

 which have been distributed by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. 



7. Rubus Linkianus, Ser. Canes angled and beset 

 with many very strong and sharp hooked prickles, finely 

 pubescent ; petioles and midribs strongly prickly ; 

 leaflets 3-5, oval or elliptic and acute, strongly and 

 doubly toothed, green and glabrous above, white- 

 tomentose beneath ; flower-clusters short-paniculate, beset 

 with strong prickles, more or less leafy, pubescent or 

 tomentose ; flowers mostly double, white ; fruit black. 



The wild plant and the native country are 

 unknown, the species being founded on garden 

 specimens. Bailey, in the discussion of this 

 species, says that a similar plant, not double- 

 flowered, occurs apparently as a wild plant 

 from Maryland to Florida, from which the 

 tree blackberry or Topsy, introduced some 

 years ago for its fruit, seems to have come. 

 The sand blackbeny, R. cuneifolius, Pursh, 

 growing in dry fields from Florida to Loui- 

 siana, according to Bailey, has been confused 

 with this species. 



8. Rubus laciniatus, Willd. Cut-leaved Blackberry. 

 Evergreen Blackberry. Oregon Evergjpeen Blackberry. 

 Plants vigorous, trailing, half-hardy, very productive ; 

 canes long, the lower part perennial and becoming 2 or 

 3 inches in diameter, dark red, few branches, with long, 

 stout, somewhat recurved prickles. Leaflets 3, broad- 

 ovate, divided into several linear, sharply toothed di- 

 visions, ribs and petiole prickly, evergreen in mild 

 climates. Flowers in terminal panicles, 1% inches in 

 diameter, light pink or white, 8 to 10 inches long, 

 open, leafy, prickly clusters. Fruit late, ripening over 

 a long season, medium in size or small, black, of in- 

 different quality. 



This blackberry is without doubt a native 

 of Europe, but whether a distinct species or a 

 cut-leaved form of another species is not de- 

 termined. It seems to have been widely scat- 

 tered at least as long as a century ago, and it 

 is now a run-wild in several islands in the 

 Pacific Ocean and on the Pacific slope of 

 North America. It is grown for its fruit and 

 as an ornamental in the regions named, but 

 does not thrive in colder climates and no- 

 where has great value as a commercial variety. 

 Its very late and long season gives it im- 

 portance for home plantations. The plants 

 are deep rooted, hence probably more resistant 

 to drouth than any other blackberry. The 

 plants root at the tips, the chief method used 

 in propagating. The canes are so heavily 

 armed with thorns that picking is a most un- 

 pleasant task. 



A variety grown more or less in New Jersey, 

 variously known as Diamond, Black Diamond, 

 Star, Wonder, Ewing Wonder, and Atlantic 

 Dewberry, is probably a seedling of Oregon 

 Evergreen. 



DEWBERRIES 



A dewberry is a trailing blackberry. Dew- 

 berries ripen earlier than blackberries and 

 they are further separated by the flower- and 

 fruit-clusters. In true dewberries, the center 

 flowers open first and the flowers are few and 



