CHAPTER XXIV. 



BLACKBERRIES VARIETIES, CULTIVATION, ETC. 



r I A HE small-fruit branch of the rose family is assuredly entitled to 

 -L respect when it is remembered that the blackberry is the blackest 

 sheep in it. Unlike the raspberry, the drupes cling to the receptacle, 

 which falls off with them when mature, and forms the hard, disagreeable 

 core when the berry is black, but often only half ripe. The bush is, in truth, 

 what the ancients called it, a bramble, and one of our Highland wild- 

 cats could scarcely scratch more viciously than it, if treated too familiarly ; 

 but, with judicious respect and good management, it will yield berries as 

 large and beautiful as those on the Kittatinny spray portrayed, the original 

 of which ripened in my garden last summer. 



It would seem that Nature had given her mind more to blackberries 

 than to strawberries, for, instead of merely five, she has scattered about 

 150 species up and down the globe. To describe all these would be a 

 thorny experience indeed, robbing the reader of his patience as com- 

 pletely as he would be bereft of his clothing, should he literally attempt 

 to go through them all. Therefore, I shall give Professor Gray's descrip- 

 tion of the two species which have furnished our few really good varieties, 

 and dismiss with mere mention a few other species. 



" Rubus Villosus, High Blackberry. Everywhere along thickets, fence-rows, 

 etc., and several varieties cultivated; stems one to six feet high, furrowed; prickles 

 strong and hooked ; leaflets three to five, ovate or lance-ovate, pointed, their lower 



