ON THE THORNLESS BLACKBERRY 



stem, and it had almost nothing else to commend 

 it. Its berries were quite small and lacking in 

 flavor, and it had moreover the pestiferous habit 

 of suckering from the roots. So it naturally did 

 not achieve popularity. Nor was anything heard 

 of any other blackberry that laid claim to thom- 

 lessness until about ten years later. 



Then it chanced — in the year 1902 I think it 

 was — that Mr. David G. Fairfield, of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, found in North 

 Carolina a few plants of a wild dewberry, ap- 

 parently Rubus Canadensis, th&t were nearly 

 thornless. Mr. Fairchild had frequently furnished 

 me specimens of one kind or ^mother that he 

 thought might be useful in my work. He now 

 very kindly sent me a few ripe berries picked 

 from the partially thornless dewberry. 



The seeds were carefully planted in boxes in 

 my greenhouse. Of the several hundred seedlings 

 that these produced, probably about one or two 

 in the hundred were nearly or quite destitute of 

 thorns. 



These few thornless plants were carefully se- 

 lected, all the remainder being destroyed. 



From the fruits borne by these selected plants, 

 a second generation was raised, from among 

 which it was possible to select a great number 

 that were absolutely free from thorns — showing 



[11] 



