PURPLE-CANE FAMILY 177 



II. THE PURPLE -CANE RASPBERRIES 

 Rubus neglectus 



In this group I have endeavored to include all those 

 varieties which are intermediate in character between 

 the red and the black raspberry. Not all of these be- 

 long to the true Purple -cane type. The Philadelphia 

 and its numerous seedlings are much nearer to Rubus 

 strigosus than to Rubus occidentalis. They propagate 

 by suckers, though somewhat sparingly, and are, to all 

 intents and purposes, red raspberries of a slightly 

 darker hue, while the true Purple -cane type propagates 

 by tips, being like black raspberries in habit. 



No point in the history of the raspberry is more 

 interesting than to note the number of varieties of the 

 Rubus neglectus type, or Purple -cane family, as it was 

 formerly called, which have come into public notice. 

 There are some forty varieties which can be definitely 

 placed in this class. Of a large number which have 

 received so little notice in print that it is impossible to 

 classify them, a fair proportion undoubtedly also belong 

 here. Aside from these there have, no doubt, been 

 many local varieties which never came into public 

 notice. I well remember hearing, when a boy, that 

 black raspberries would turn into reds, and that the 

 purple forms occasionally found growing wild were 

 undergoing that change. I remember a bush of this 

 character growing in the exact spot, as it now seems, 

 where a black -cap had been growing, and in spite of 

 all later training and observation, it is hard to get away 

 from the idea that that bush had changed its politics! 



