DEWBERRY 179 



productive, and bears very large fruit of delicious 

 flavour. Another kind, the " Ancient Briton," yields 

 very freely, while the " First and best " is not only 

 a very prolific bearer, but begins fruiting very early. 

 The " Mammoth," too, is an excellent variety. 

 Another valuable plant is the " Crystal white": 

 this gives a fine crop of creamy- white fruit. Another 

 variety, known as the " Iceberg," also bears white 

 fruit, and is held in high regard. Others, again, have 

 double flowers or very richly cut foliage, while the 

 loganberry, a true and permanent hybrid between 

 the blackberry and the raspberry, has undoubted 

 merits, and is a distinctly valuable addition to the 

 fruit-bearers of our gardens. 



The dewberry, the plant we figure in Plate XX., is 

 a very near relative of the blackberry. Botanically 

 it is the Rubus ccesius, the specific name signifying 

 bluish-grey, in obvious reference to the colour of the 

 ripe fruit. The popular English name has no real 

 reference to dew, but is a transformation of the Anglo- 

 Saxon word duua, a dove, another obvious allusion 

 to the purple-grey or dove-colour of the matured 

 berries. As contrasted with the blackberry the 

 branches are slender and more or less covered with 

 a greyish bloom, and rarely arch ; the flowers are 

 few in number, and the narrow calyx segments close 

 in in much more cup-like form ; the leaves are of a 

 paler green, and the prickles are by no means so 

 much in painful evidence. The berries too, while 



