HIGH-BUSH BLACKBERRY 



growth, beautiful in leaf and in flower, grateful in 

 fruit, glorious in its rich autumnal coloring, — simply 

 to make a desolation, or to provide more space for rag- 

 weed and plantain and beggar-ticks, — is zeal without 

 knowledge. Yet this is what happens nine cases out 

 of ten when the rural street commissioner starts out 

 upon his devastating career to improve the country 

 roadside. 



Rubus nigrobaccus is the prevailing form of the high- 

 bush blackberries of the woods and fencerows of the 

 north ; from this wild, untamed, hardy stock has 

 sprung the blackberry of cultivation. The well known 

 Lawton, Kittatinny and Wilson varieties originated 

 from wild seedlings found by the wayside and trans- 

 ferred to the garden. 



The botanical history of this High-bush Blackberry 

 is entangled and confused. The plant is really Rubus 

 villosus of American botanists. It so appears in Gray's 

 Manual, sixth edition. But in following out the rules 

 of nomenclature adopted by the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science it was discovered 

 that the name Rubus villosus belonged to another plant. 

 Prof. L. H. Bailey was able to determine this by per- 

 sonally examining the herbaria of Linnaeus and of 

 Aiton. As a consequence our wild-wood brier became 

 nameless, and finally received the Latin synonym of 

 its common name — nigrobaccus, — blackberrv. In study- 

 ing the plant it is well to remember that the five- 

 foliate leaves are found usually on young and sterile 

 stems, the three-foliate upon the fertile ones. 



Professor Bailey, in " The Evolution of our Native 

 Fruits," published in 1898, writes as follows: 



I4Q 



