Excerpt: ...who flourished in the fourth century, mentions the raspberry as one of the cultivated fruits of his time." It thus appears that it was promoted to the garden long before the strawberry was so honored. While it is true that the raspberry in various forms is found wild throughout the continent, and that the ancient gardeners in most instances obtained their supply of plants in the adjacent fields or forests, the late Mr. A. J. Downing is of the opinion that the large- fruited varieties are descendants of the "Mount Ida Bramble," and from that locality were introduced into the gardens of southern Europe. In America, two well-known and distinct species are enriching our gardens and gracing our tables with their healthful fruit. We will first name R. Strigosus, or the wild red raspberry, almost as dear to our memory as the wild strawberry. It grows best along the edge of woodlands and in half-shadowy places that seem equally adapted to lovers' rambles. Nature, too, in a kindly mood, seems to have scattered the seeds of this fruit along the roadside, thus fringing the highway in dusty, hot July with ambrosial food. Professor Gray thus describes the native red species: "R. Strigosus, Wild Bed E. Common, especially North; from two to three feet high; the upright stems, stalks, etc., beset with copious bristles, and some of them becoming weak prickles, also glandular; leaflets oblong-ovate, pointed, cut-serrate, white- downy beneath, the lateral ones (either one or two pairs) not stalked; petals as long as the sepals; fruit light-red, tender and watery, but high flavored, ripening all summer." The second great American species, R. Occidentals, will be described hereafter. Since this book is not designed to teach botany, I shall not refer to the other species-R. Triflorus, R. Odoratus, R. Nutkanno, etc.-which are of no practical value, and, for the present, will confine myself to the propagation and cultivation of R. Idoeus and R. Strigosus, and their...