BRAMBLE. 57 



I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws, 

 Or blushing crabs, or berries that emboss 

 The Bramble, black as jet, or sloes austere. 

 Hard fare ! but such as boyish appetite 

 Disdains not ; nor the palate, undepraved 

 By culinary arts, unsavoury deems." 



The double-flowered variety of the Bramble makes a 

 good figure in ornamental plantations. 



To this genus belongs another very ornamental shrub, 

 the Virginian Flowering Raspberry, Ritbus odoratus : it 

 does not ripen its fruit here, but is esteemed for the 

 beauty of the blossoms, which it produces plentifully, 

 and in constant succession throughout the summer, and 

 for the large and elegantly formed leaves, which also are 

 delightfully fragrant. 



Linnaeus mentions a Bramble, called the Arctic, or 

 the Dwarf Crimson Bramble, Rubus Arcticus, of which 

 the fruit is nearly as large as a mulberry ; purple, fra- 

 grant, and very pleasant. He speaks of it with gratitude, 

 as he says, for the benefit he received from it in his 

 Lapland journey ; the vinous nectar of its berries having 

 often recruited his spirits when he was almost sinking 

 with hunger and fatigue. He tells us these are more 

 highly valued than any other of the Swedish wild berries, 

 and that, in the province of Norland, the principal families 

 make a jelly, a syrup, and a wine from them ; part of 

 which they consume themselves, and send a part to their 

 friends in Stockholm, as a dainty of the finest and rarest 

 kind. 



Dr. Clarke says, " the flavour of its berries is finer than 

 that of the hautboy strawberry, which perhaps it more 

 resembles than any other kind of fruit. These berries 

 are of a dark red colour, equal in si/e to those of our 

 common raspberry trees; but the plant is so diminutive. 



