276 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



variety which he obtained "from a London nursery, 

 under the title of Rubus Pennsylvanicus, but have 

 since found it to be identical with plants received 

 from the forests of the State of Maine ; " and the 

 Canada Red, or Rubus Canadensis, a red raspberry of 

 medium size which he had seen growing along the 

 roadsides near Montreal, and the fruit of which was 

 there collected and "large quantities sold in the mar- 

 kets." Prince also mentions the wild black raspberry, 

 but this was not cultivated. The preference for the 

 red berries is easily explained from the fact that the 

 fruits of the European raspberry are red or purple. 

 The earliest raspberry-growers naturally followed the 

 foreign models ; but these patterns were destined soon 

 to be obscured by a new type of fruit. 



We shall find this new type of fruit — the improved 

 black raspberry or black-cap — developing in the West, 

 and its genius is Nicholas Longworth, the same pro- 

 phetic spirit who put American grape -growing on its 

 feet. He had found a wild raspberry of unusual 

 promise in Ohio in 1832. After he had cultivated it 

 for a number of years, he was not only convinced of 

 its value for America, but wanted it tried in England 

 as well. So we find him writing to the "Gardener's 

 Magazine," in London, about his new berry :* 



"When driven into the interior of the state by the 

 cholera, in September and October of 1832, I found a 

 raspberry in full bearing, a native of our state, and 

 the only everbearing raspberry I have ever met with. 

 I introduced it the sane winter into my garden, and 

 it is now cultivated by me in preference to all others 



•A Bynopsia of this history is published in Hull. 117, Cornell Exp. St*. 



