33 Rubus odoratm.
nal, bracteate, spreading corymbs—the peduncles, bracts, and ramifications
of which are covered with a red and glutinous hispidness.
Petals ovate, lake-red, five in number, wrinkled, and spreading.
Calix glutinously villous, with linear, leafy acuminations, often exceeding
half an inch in length. The flowers and corymbs possess a
strong and agreeable terebinthinate odour. Berries, according to
Pursh, | of a very fine flavour and large size.»’ Grows in hilly
woods, or on elevated and retired spots of shrubbery in Canada, and
on the Alleghany mountains. Flowering in June and July.
This showy plant belongs to a genus in many species of which
the prevailing colour of the fruit is red. Hence the term Rubus, which
is supposed to have the same origin as ruber, synonymous with the
Celtic word rub, red.
The fruit of most of the speeies is eseulent and refreshing, and
when eaten perfectly ripe, even medicinal, acting kindly on the
stomach and bowels. The fruit of the present species rarely comes
to maturity under cultivation, and, even when perfectly ripe, is rather
insipid than grateful. As an ornamental plant alone, it seems entitled
to attention, being hardy, of rapid growth, and bearing an
abundance of very elegant flowers.
Flowering Raspberry is not a very common plant, nor its geographical
range very extensive. It appears to delight in secluded ele-
Rubus odoratus.
vated situations, where it is sometimes abundant, but local. On the
Wissahickon creek, near this city, and about two or three miles
from Germantown it grows wild, and is there tolerably abundant.
In this situation the petals do not possess so vivid a hue as those of
plants raised in gardens, and these are likewise somewhat smaller.
Considerable difference occurs in the wild and cultivated plant, in
the length of the elongated terminations of the calix, some being
only a quarter of an inch long, while other specimens occur in which
they attain the length of three-quarters of an inch.
The table represents a flowering specimen taken from the wild
plant, the size of nature. The leaves are often much larger
than represented in the plate—but there are at the same time
many much smaller on the same plant.