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DEWBERRIES 



DEWBERRIES 



scattered; in the true blackberries, the lower 

 and outer flowers open first and the clusters are 

 dense. This distinction in flower-clusters does 

 not always hold, and there are also hybrids be- 

 tween the two in which these characters are 

 confused. A further distinction is found in the 

 method of propagation. Dewberries, in nature 

 or under cultivation, are propagated from tips, 

 while blackberries naturally propagate them- 

 selves from suckers, and under cultivation are 

 propagated from suckers or from root-cut- 

 tings. In the matter of propagation, also, 

 there are exceptions, as the Evergreen and 

 Himalaya blackberries, and several hybrids 

 between the blackberries and dewberries are 

 propagated from tips. There are many inter- 

 mediate forms, making it difficult to separate 

 the two fruits. 



Dewberries are American fruits but recently 

 domesticated, for their cultivation as a com- 

 mercial crop did not begin until toward the 

 close of the nineteenth century, although 

 named varieties go back to the middle of the 

 century. It is hardly correct to speak of them 

 as domesticated plants, for many of the varie- 

 ties have been brought to the gardens from 

 woods and fields, and in the garden they be- 

 have more like wild than domesticated sub- 

 jects the most uncertain and unmanageable 

 of all small-fruits. However, the dewberry is 

 a most important addition to pomology, as the 

 fruits ripen earlier, and are larger, handsomer, 

 and better flavored than blackberries, while 

 the plants are usually more productive. When 

 hardier varieties have been selected, which 

 at the same time are less capricious to soils 

 and less dependent on cross-pollination be- 

 tween varieties, the place of dewberries in 

 home and commercial plantations will be es- 

 tablished. At present, several species and a 

 rapidly increasing number of varieties are 

 under cultivation. 



Of the many species of blackberries and 

 dewberries, from which cultivated varieties 

 are certainly derived, pomologists distinguish 

 four as dewberries. 



1. Rubus procumbens, Muhl. This species is char- 

 acterized by woody canes several feet long, becoming 

 prostrate, usually stoutly armed with recurved prickles ; 

 leaflets usually narrowed at the base, nearly or quite 

 glabrous, membranaceous ; flowers in leafy racemes ; fruit 

 subglobose to short-cylindric with few to many large 

 juicy drupelets. 



This is the dewberry of dry open fields 

 from Maine westward and southward. Var. 

 roribaccus, Bailey, is a well-marked subspecies 



from West Virginia, of which the plant is 

 stronger, the flowers larger, with more elon- 

 gated pedicels and with larger fruits. There 

 are several cultivated varieties of the sub- 

 species, of which the old and well-known 

 Lucretia is the best representative. R. pro- 

 cumbens is the most important type of dew- 

 berry in cultivation. 



2. Rubus invisus, Brit. This species is similar to 

 the last and seems to have about the same range. The 

 canes are stouter, less procumbent, often making mounds 

 or piles of canes and herbage, not so well armed ; leaves 

 more coarsely toothed ; pedicels longer, and with large 

 and leaf-like sepals. Several cultivated dewberries are 

 derived from this species of which Bartel is best known 

 and most representative. 



3. Rubus trivialis, Michx. Southern Dewberry. This 

 species is quite distinct from 1 and 2 and so variable 

 as to be most perplexing to systematists. Canes very 

 long, usually wholly trailing, slender, armed, as are 

 also the petioles and often the peduncles, with flattish, 

 short, hooked prickles ; leaflets leathery, of three kinds, 

 those on fruiting shoots rather small and nearly or 

 quite evergreen ; peduncles 1-3 flowered ; fruit cylindri- 

 cal with many drupelets which are sometimes dry and 

 seedy but usually juicy and excellent. 



The habitat is from Virginia to Florida 

 and Texas near the coast. Of the few varieties 

 of this species under cultivation, Manatee is 

 probably the oldest and best known. This 

 is the common dewberry or running black- 

 berry of the southern states, which often be- 

 comes a pest, sometimes as an escape from 

 cultivation. 



4. Rubus vitifolius, Cham. & Schlecht. Western 

 Dewberry. California Dewberry. This species is char- 

 acterized by trailing, sometimes erect, slender, pubescent 

 canes with straight or recurved slender prickles ; 3-5 

 evergreen leaflets, about 2 inches long, ovate, doubly 

 serrate, exceedingly variable ; flowers often imperfect, 

 the petals of staminate flowers longer than those of the 

 pistillate ones ; fruit black, red in the loganberry, 

 oblong, of medium size, sweet and pleasant ; the 

 drupelets more or less pubescent. By some the species 

 is separated into two because of variableness in the 

 amount of pubescence on stems and leaves and in the 

 size and shape of the fruit. 



The western dewberry is an inhabitant of 

 California along streams and in moist places. 

 Of the several cultivated varieties belonging 

 to the species, Aughinbaugh and Skagit Chief 

 were long best known, but recent investigations 

 show that the widely cultivated loganberry, 

 long considered a hybrid between this species 

 and the European red raspberry, is a cultivated 

 form of this species. Laxton, Mahdi, Mam- 

 moth (Lowberry of some), Phenomenal, and 

 Primus are all hybrids with or pure-bred 

 varieties from the western dewberry, which 

 by virtue of these valuable offspring becomes 

 a species of prime importance to pomologists. 



