THE BLACKBERRY 17 
Information 
Early in spring the little blackberry buds unfold and the 
blackberry bush is covered with beautiful white flowers. Their 
petals are the thinnest and frailest of all our fruit blossoms and 
look as though they would melt away into the air. They are 
soon gone and then you may see the bunches of tiny green 
berries. 
The leaves and stems and thorns are at first green, and the 
thorns are quite soft. But as the summer advances their color 
changes. ‘The stems turn brown; the leaves become yellow, 
brown, or often a lovely deep red. The thorns grow sharp and 
as hard as the claws of a cat. 
Blackberries usually grow on rather low bushes. These are 
often called vines because some of the branches, or shoots, grow 
to be very long and look like vines. But these vinelike shoots do 
not bear fruit wntil they are broken or cut off. The wind does 
this sometimes for the wild blackberry, but when the plants are 
cultivated they are carefully cut with a knife or clippers. This 
is called pruning. 
There are many varieties of blackberries, both cultivated and 
wild. Among the wild ones there is a vine that is often found 
along the country roadsides bearing large juicy berries. These 
are called dewberries. 
Blackberry bushes are so protected by their clawlike thorns 
that very few animals ever get a taste of the berries. The birds, 
however, can easily pick them without being caught by the thorns, 
and they eat a great many of them. 
But there are two other little creatures who enjoy ripe black- 
NATURE STUDY —2 
