186 BUSH-FRUITS 



reliable. It is also probable that our hot, dry summers 

 are as important a factor in working their injury as the 

 cold of winter. No better evidence of their lack of 

 adaptability to our climate is needed than the fact that 

 while there have been something like one hundred 

 varieties belonging to this species introduced in the 

 United States, probably not over five or six are grown 

 at all at the present time, and these only in a very 

 small way. The fruit is generally conceded to be of 

 better quality than our American reds, and if the 

 plants had proved satisfactory, this species would natur- 

 ally have been in the ascendency. The following ac- 

 count of the history of the red raspberries was con- 

 tributed to The American Garden by the writer. 



HISTORY AND FUTURE OP THE KED RASPBERRIES 



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

 back into the ages. It it 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. 

 Perhaps 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 



