254 HOETICULTURAL MAXUAL. 



not start from the attached stem but from the crown. 

 The section of stem is upside down and its mission is 

 accomplished when it develops roots at the point. Plant 

 with the crown not more than half an inch below the sur- 

 face of the earth. 



244. The Purple-cane Varieties. — This is an interesting 

 and valuable assemblance of varieties which has been 

 classed as a true species, Rubus neglectus. It appears to 

 be intermediate in character between the black caps and 

 the American red species. Fuller says of it: "The prin- 

 cipal difference between the varieties of the black caps and 

 purple cane is in the fruit. The first, as is well known, 

 has a rather dry, tough fruit with a peculiar flavor. Its 

 grains are numerous and very irregular in size. The fruit 

 of purple cane, as a rule, is rather soft, juicy, often very 

 brittle, the grains separating very readily; color varjdng 

 from light red to dark brownish purple, but never black; 

 the flavor mild and agreeable, but entirely distinct from 

 those of the true black-cap raspberry. " 



Professor Bailey says of the purple-cane family: "The 

 type has no characters which are not found in one or both 

 of the other two. Neither has it any normal or contin- 

 uous range, but occurs where the black and red species are 

 associated. All this points strongly to hybridity; and 

 there is now sufiicient accumulation of experimental evi- 

 dence to prove a hybrid origin for these berries. " 



As the botanic classiflcation is uncertain, and the close 

 relation to the black caps is evident, it is usual with 

 growers to class the purple-cane varieties that root from 

 the tip of the canes and nevfer sprout from the roots with 

 the black caps (242). This leaves a small but excellent 

 class which, like the Philadelphia, are not easy to root 

 from the tips of growth and not sprouting as freely as the 

 red varieties. 



