ROSE FAMILY 



King! The root of the bramble lives on indefinitely 

 but its life functions in consecutive and ever renewed 

 stems. 



HIGH-BUSH BLACKBERRY. COMMON BRIER 



Riibus nigrobdccus. Riibus villbsus. 



A straggling prickly bush with stems, both erect and recurved, 

 three to eight feet high ; found throughout the eastern portions 

 of the United States and far northward in British America ; 

 known by its peculiar and pleasant fruit. Grows in thickets, 

 along roadsides, in neglected fields. Multiplies abundantly by 

 creeping roots. 



Stems. — Biennial, shrubby, erect or recurved, angular, fur- 

 rowed, three to eight feet high, armed with stout curved prickles, 

 green or dark purple, with a bloom. Young branches, pedun- 

 cles, stipules, petioles and veins beneath, pubescent and bearing 

 numerous glandular-tipped hairs. 



Leaves. — Alternate, compound, three to five-foliate. Leaf- 

 lets ovate or lance-oblong, two to four inches long, rounded at 

 base, unequally serrate, acute at apex ; terminal leaflet somewhat 

 heart-shaped and conspicuously stalked : the side leaflets also 

 stalked ; midrib and petiole armed with stout prickles. They 

 come out of the bud plicate, dull reddish green, shining, hairy ; 

 when full grown are dark green above, paler, hairy and glandular 

 beneath. In autumn they turn a rich vinous red, varying to 

 bronze, purple or fading to orange. Stipules linear or lance- 

 olate. 



Flowers. — May, June. Of the rose type, white, showy, three- 

 fourths to an inch and a quarter across, borne mainly in termi- 

 nal, racemose, leafless panicles. Calyx persistent, deeply five- 

 parted, its tube short and broad : petals white, obovate, much 

 longer than the sepals : stamens inserted on the calyx. Pedicels 

 glandular-hairy, an inch or two long, standing out at obtuse 

 angles to the main axis. 



Fruit. — An aggregate fruit consisting of many small, black, 

 shining drupes borne on a long white axis which is the elonga- 

 tion of the receptacle. The drupes do not separate from the 



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