STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



pointed; the fruit is juicy and acid, not as sweet as that of 

 the 



BLACK KASPBERRY Rubus occidentalis (L.). 



This species is distinguished from the above by its long 

 arching flexile branches, covered with purplish red bark, 

 strongly-hooked prickles and blackish fruit, very rich, firm 

 and sweet. It loves to grow on hilly banks and upturned 

 roots in the shade of the forest, where it can send down its 

 long flexible branches, which bear an abundance of berries 

 long after the Ked Kaspberry has failed to yield a supply. 

 Gray calls this Black Raspberry by the familiar name of 

 Thimbleberry ; but it is a fruit of the Blackberry (Rubus 

 villosus Ait.) that is commonly known by this name. 

 The berries of the Blackberry are not hollow, nor do they, 

 like the last, separate from the receptacle; they are conical, 

 sweet and luscious to the taste, in quality astringent, but 

 not unpleasantly flavored. The berries ripen in August; 

 the foliage is veiny, coarse, with strong red prickles, the 

 stems strongly armed and covered with a dark-red bark, 

 which with the root is highly astringent and used both in 

 the form of a tea and syrup in cases of dysentery and 

 summer complaint. The fruit in syrup is also considered 

 medicinal and useful in similar complaints. 



A very pretty ornamental low creeping shrubby plant is 

 the 



SWAMP BLACKBERRY Rubus Mspidus (L.). 



The branches, very strongly armed with hooked prickles, 

 are long and slender, extending two or three feet over the 

 ground; leaves, of three leaflets, bright varnished green, 

 rounded at the ends, more in form like those of the Straw- 



186 



