170 Bush-Fruits 



History and Future of the Red Raspberries 



The history of the European raspberry, Rubus Idceus, runs far 

 back into the ages. It is mentioned by Cato, who lived before the 

 beginning of the Christian era, and it appears to have been a natural 

 product of Roman territory. Pliny the Elder, supposed to have 

 written about A. D. 45, mentions it as one of the wild brambles 

 which the Greeks called "Idea," having derived its name from 

 Mount Ida, in Asia Minor, at the foot of which lay the renowned 

 city of Troy. In this mountain were said to dwell fabulous be- 

 ings, who were credited with being the first to work iron and copper, 

 and with having introduced music and rhythm into Greece. Per- 

 haps we may infer that in the exercise of the marvelous powers 

 which they were alleged to possess, they produced this glorious 

 fruit to appease some angry god, or gladden the eye and delight 

 the taste of a gracious princess. Although deriving its name from 

 this locality, where it was particularly abundant, the raspberry is 

 indigenous over the greater part of Europe and northern Asia. It 

 is impossible to tell whether the plants were cultivated at this early 

 date, and it is not unlikely that the gods, like many mortals of the 

 present day, were obliged to be content with the precarious supply 

 to be found growing at will in grove and glade. Palladeus, how- 

 ever, a Roman writer of the fourth century, mentions the rasp- 

 berry as one of the cultivated fruits of that time. From a work 

 written by Conrad Heresbach, entitled "Rei Rusticse," published 

 in 1570, and afterward translated by Barnaby Googe, it appears 

 that raspberries were little attended to during that period. John 

 Parkinson, in his "Paradisus," published in 1629, speaks of red, 

 white and thornless raspberries as suitable for the English climate. 

 Stephen Switzer, in 1724, only mentions three kinds. George W. 

 Johnson, in his "History of English Gardening," published in 

 1829, gives the number of cultivated varieties as twenty-three. 

 From these detached notes it appears that although cultivated at 

 least as far back as the fourth century, it nevertheless did not 

 come to be considered a fruit of any importance and demand at- 

 tention until the close of the sixteenth century, or later. 



The raspberry never seems to have been held in such high esteem 



